Tampa Bay Downs: Sneaking Uponyou puts exclamation point on Florida Cup card

OLDSMAR, Fla. – When Sneaking Uponyou powered away from the field through the stretch en route to a smashing 6 1/4-length victory in the Hilton Garden Inn/Hampton Inn and Suites Sprint Stakes, it put an exclamation point on the 12th Florida Cup Day at Tampa Bay Downs on a Saturday program that saw locally based runners take four of the six $75,000 stakes for Florida-breds.

With Huber Villa-Gomez basically just along for the ride, Sneaking Uponyou took the Sprint Stakes for the second time by simply running his competition into defeat. He raced through a half-mile of 44.73 seconds with the favored Evolution Rocks on his outside flank, but when they swung into the stretch, Sneaking Uponyou kicked away like a fresh horse, leaving the rest of the field in his wake. He covered the six furlongs in 1:09.08, just 0.41 seconds off the track record, and earned a 98 Beyer Speed Figure.

“I’m tickled with this horse,” said Jamie Ness, who owns the 8-year-old Sneaking Uponyou with his wife, Mandy. “He’s been consistent for such a long time. It’s amazing.”

Ness, who claimed Sneaking Uponyou from his third career start as a 2-year-old, put it simply: “They say speed kills, and it certainly did today.”

About a half-hour earlier, Old Time Hockey weaved his way through traffic under some deft handling by Ronnie Allen Jr. and was able to swing to the middle of the course and run down the leaders late for a hard-earned victory in the nine-furlong Tampa Turf Classic.

It was Old Time Hockey’s second straight win of the meeting for trainer Tom Proctor. Proctor actually had two horses finish first in the Florida Cup races, but Lori’s Store, who hit the wire a half-length in front in the Pleasant Acres Stallions Distaff Turf Stakes, was disqualified and placed third for coming out to bother eventual winner Cuppy Cake and the late-closing favorite E B Ryder.

It was the third win of the meet for Cuppy Cake.

In the Stonehedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies Stakes, Juan Leyva had Holiday Magic throttled down heavily for five furlongs, but when a hole opened inside, he had a fresh and willing partner, and the pair drove to the lead into the final furlong and pulled away late for a solid win.

Leyva and trainer Bill Kaplan teamed up to win the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with Musical Romance.

When four horses were strung across the track, disputing the early pace in the seven-furlong Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomore Sprint, you could sense that the race might go to the horse who made the last move – and it did.

Prudhoe Bay, buried inside to the stretch, was moved to the middle of the track at just the right time in the drive by Angel Serpa and ran down Brothersofthetime and C. Zee in the final strides. It was vintage Serpa, who has come to life in recent weeks and is beginning to look like the rider who turned a lot of heads here during the last two meetings, winning 72 and 56 races, respectively.

In the Skinny’s Place of Anna Maria Island Sophomore Turf Stakes, Ex Pirate was so shocked to find himself on the lead turning up the backstretch of that 1 1/16-mile race that he bore out until jockey Daniel Centeno was able to settle him down. Once he got back on track, it was all over, as Ex Pirate notched his third win of the meeting for owner Richard Averill and trainer Ralph Ziadie.