Tampa returns to stakes action with Pasco, Gasparilla, and Wayward Lass
Following a five-week break in the schedule, stakes action resumes Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs with twin races for 3-year-olds, the Pasco and Gasparilla, as well as the Wayward Lass for older fillies.
All three stakes will be run on the main track amid an unseasonable chill, as the Saturday forecast for Oldsmar, Fla., calls for a brisk wind and a high temperature of just 51. First post for a 10-race card is 12:32 p.m. Eastern.
The base purse for both the Pasco and Gasparilla is $50,000, with as much as an additional $75,000 available in Florida-bred bonuses. The Wayward Lass is worth a flat $50,000. They’re all part of the 50-cent late pick five (races 6-10).
Pasco (race 6, 3:03)
Mark Casse has the only two non-Florida-breds in a field of six colts and geldings in the seven-furlong Pasco, and both rate as strong contenders. They are Champions Dream, a last-out winner of the Grade 3 Nashua at Aqueduct, and Armstrong, who will make his dirt debut after going 2 for 3 over Tapeta at Woodbine last year.
Champions Dream was transferred into Casse’s care by Jeff Weiss of Rosedown Racing shortly after the Kentucky-bred colt earned a 69 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Nashua on Nov. 6 for Danny Gargan.
“Both horses seem to be in the same situation in that they’ve already had some success but still have something to prove,” said Casse, who will make the short drive over from his Ocala base to be at the races Saturday. “But both are training extremely well, and we’d like to see good performances to maybe set them up for something like the Sam Davis,” a Kentucky Derby qualifier set for Feb. 11 at Tampa.
Champions Dream, a gray Justify colt, will have leading rider Samy Camacho aboard from post 4. Armstrong, a bay Ontario-bred, will break alongside from post 5 with Antonio Gallardo riding.
Among the rest, Handsome Playboy and Zydeceaux both come off sharp allowance victories when posing viable threats to the uncoupled Casse duo.
Unlike at its rival in-state track, Gulfstream Park, Lasix treatment is permitted in stakes. Between the three Saturday stakes, Champions Dream and Zydeceaux are among a half-dozen horses getting first-time Lasix.
Gasparilla (race 9, 4:33)
Casse has Personal Pursuit going turf to dirt while also turning back in distance in what he described as a “really tough” renewal of the Gasparilla, the filly counterpart to the Pasco. The seven-furlong race drew a field of eight, with the Gulfstream shipper Dorth Vader (post 4, Marco Meneses) the likely favorite after getting a field-high 85 Beyer in winning the Sandpiper on Dec. 3 at Tampa.
Dorth Vader, trained by Michael “Bo” Yates, shows a pair of interim works since her 2 1/4-length Sandpiper score over Awesome Pic, who also runs back here while breaking from post 8 with Samuel Camacho Jr. up. Personal Pursuit, meanwhile, will be looking to replicate a September maiden score over the main track at the Belmont at the Big A meet that preceded a pair of losses over turf.
Dorth Vader and Awesome Pic are among four Gasparilla starters eligible for the Florida-bred bonuses.
Wayward Lass (race 7, 3:33)
Between the 3-year-old races, an intriguing renewal of the 1 1/16-mile Wayward Lass marks the return of Pass the Champagne, a 5-year-old who has had just two starts since being narrowly defeated by Maltahaat in the Grade 1 Ashland at Keeneland in April 2021.
Pass the Champagne went out of training nearly three months after her most recent race, a Gulfstream allowance victory last February. Since returning in the fall, she has posted eight timed works at trainer George Weaver’s winter base of Palm Beach Downs on the Atlantic Coast, the latest a five-furlong drill in 1:00.40 last Saturday. She’ll break from the outside post with Hector Diaz Jr. aboard in a field of seven and has Beth’s Dream and Tap Dance Fever as her main opposition.
“We gave her time off with bone bruising, and then she got sick, so it was just several small issues back to back,” said Jake Ballis, a principal in Black Type Thoroughbreds, one of four ownership entities in Pass the Champagne. “We actually may have given her more time off than she needed, so hopefully our patience will be rewarded.”
Spanabel laid up again
Jockey Skyler Spanabel is scheduled for surgery Wednesday after suffering what agent Chris Rosado described as a “serious displaced fracture of her collarbone” when her mount, Prince Ghost, clipped heels in third race Wednesday, sending her to the turf.
This is the third major injury Spanabel has suffered in less than three years, and she’ll require at least six months off if she chooses to resume her career, according to Rosado. Spanabel, 23, has 73 wins since she began riding in 2017.
Prince Ghost was not seriously injured, nor were any other riders or horses.
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