Top three seek to continue successful seasons

I’m a G Six, General Paddy, and Navy Armed Guard have all enjoyed a successful winter-spring meeting at Tampa Bay Downs. With the track granted additional dates, they’ll get a chance to add to their accomplishments when they meet Friday in a conditioned allowance race with a purse of $21,000. The race is one of three allowance-level events, plus a maiden special weight, on Friday’s solid nine-race card.

I’m a G Six is the morning-line favorite for the sixth race, which is for 3-year-olds and up who have never won two races other than maiden, claiming, starter, or statebred events, or who have never won three races, with an optional-claiming price of $32,000. I’m a G Six won a race with similar conditions in December at Tampa, then was claimed for $16,000 by trainer Darien Rodriguez when running third in his next start. Since then, he has won back-to-back optional-claiming and starter-optional claiming races, both at this mile and 40-yard distance. Antonio Gallardo has the call Friday.

General Paddy has not missed the board in four starts at this meet, with a pair of victories. Trained and co-owned by John Rigattieri, he is entered for the $32,000 claiming tag. Navy Armed Guard also is entered for the tag. He has made five starts at this meet for Joan Scott, winning twice and finishing on the board twice more.

The race has drawn an eclectic field, with runners bred in Kentucky, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Ontario. Illinois-bred Blue Sky Kowboy was a stakes winner last October at Hawthorne, while Afterburner was stakes-placed as a juvenile in his home state of Pennsylvania.

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The second race on the card, a conditioned allowance for 3-year-olds, also has drawn runners from various jurisdictions who were successful in statebred stakes as juveniles, including a pair of Ohio-breds who were last seen meeting at the Best of Ohio showcase in October.

Liberate is making his first start since winning the Best of Ohio Juvenile in this $21,000 event geared toward sophomores who have never won two races other than maiden, claiming, starter, or statebred races. Liberate, who runs for the partnership of trainer Tim Hamm and WinStar Farm, has won 4 of 5 career starts, with his only loss when venturing into open company in the Sapling Stakes. He earned the best career Beyer Speed Figure in this field, an 82, when winning the Juvenile by 7 3/4 lengths. He owns two other stakes wins against Ohio-breds, having won the Cleveland Kindergarten and the Hoover.

Wicked Warrior has won twice from four starts in Ohio and has never missed the board. This is his first start since finishing third to Liberate in the Juvenile.

Indiana-bred Two Last Words, also making his first start of the season, won the Hillsdale Stakes and finished third in the Indiana Futurity last season. Florida-bred The Goddess Lyssa is facing colts after winning her first three career starts, all at Tampa. She posted a 74 Beyer winning her debut, the second-best number in the field.

The fifth race, also a conditioned allowance, features a number of stakes-seasoned fillies and mares, led by Illinois-bred Puntsville. In a career that began in the summer of 2014, she has won seven stakes and placed in four others, both in her native state and around the region. O’Keeffe and Redeem My Heart were stakes-placed in 2019 at Canterbury and Presque Isle, respectively. Redeem My Heart is entered for the $100,000 tag.