Tampa opens with new look and new voice
It might look a little different – and it’ll definitely sound a lot different – at Tampa Bay Downs when the Oldsmar, Fla., track kicks off its 2021-22 meet Wednesday.
A refurbishing of an aging facility was undertaken in recent months, while Jason Beem is the new announcer at Tampa, which has made steady gains in popularity in recent years among winter horseplayers.
For the first time at a full Tampa meet – he already called the June 30 and July 1 cards mandated by arcane Florida regulations – Beem will be calling the action from atop the grandstand, replacing Richard Grunder, who served in that role for 37 years. The 41-year-old Oregon resident has called at a half-dozen other tracks, including Monmouth Park and Colonial Downs, in a career dating to 2006.
“Tampa is a track I’ve always enjoyed as a fan, so to get to be part of the team here is really cool,” said Beem, who is well known to serious fans through his podcasts and Twitter.
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The off-season improvements at Tampa include renovations of the grandstand, clubhouse, paddock, and stable area, as well as the one-mile main track and seven-furlong turf course.
“We added sand to the racetrack and spruced up the turf,” track vice president Tom McLaughlin said in a recent release. “The safety of the horses is always our first concern.”
More than five months of racing goes through Kentucky Derby Day, May 7, with a three-day schedule (Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays) being extended to four days in late December, when Sundays are added.
The stakes schedule follows a familiar rhythm, with the two Kentucky Derby qualifying events, the Feb. 12 Sam F. Davis and March 12 Tampa Bay Derby, being run four weeks apart. Sticking with the status quo means a pair of 2-year-old races, the Inaugural and Sandpiper, will be held as the first two stakes Dec. 4.
Unfortunately, overnight purses at Tampa are lagging well behind those in Kentucky, New York, and Arkansas. An opening-day maiden-special (race 6) is worth a maximum of $26,500, whereas comparable races in those other states are worth three times that amount or more.
“They pay you in sunshine,” said one cynical trainer who soon will ship down a dozen horses from his year-round Keeneland base.
Nonetheless, horsemen and fans have adopted an unmistakable affinity for Tampa, with daily handle averaging more than $4 million in recent seasons. When the COVID pandemic fostered great fear and uncertainty in the spring of 2020, Tampa was one of the few tracks to continue racing, an undertaking that did not go unnoticed by an appreciative off-track audience.
A nine-race Wednesday opener that starts at 12:43 p.m. Eastern will offer the type of fare that bettors can expect on a steady basis, with all but one race being for maidens and/or claimers. Big fields are plentiful, with 105 entries, including 11 also-eligibles, on the card.
The lone allowance (race 7) is a $28,000, second-level turf allowance at 1 1/16 miles, with Be Up and Pugilist the logical favorites among an oversubscribed field of fillies and mares.
Gerald Bennett, the perennial leading trainer, can be expected to make headlines very early in the meet. Bennett is just three shy of the 4,000-win milestone, and his stable once again is geared toward running (and winning) often at Tampa. Bennett has five opening-day entries, including Tap Dance Fever in the nominal feature.