Track record $20.8 million bet on Tampa Bay Derby Day
OLDSMAR, Fla. – All-sources handle on the 12-race Festival Day card on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs was a track record $20,778,222, crushing the former the record of $15.2 million, set last year on Festival Day. Nearly $3.7 million was bet on the Tampa Derby, a one-race record. Helping the Tampa cause was the fact both Aqueduct and Laurel Park canceled racing Saturday because of poor weather.
A strong rainstorm swept through the local area about three hours before the card began, but “a superb job by our track maintenance department headed by Tom McLaughlin kept both the main track and the turf course as fair and safe as possible,” said Tampa general manager Peter Berube.
◗ A modest nine-race Wednesday card without so much as an allowance kicks off another four-day race week at Tampa. First post is 12:14 p.m. Eastern, with turf racing (races 5, 7, 9) in apparent jeopardy given a 70 percent chance of rain in the local forecast. The final stakes at a meet, which runs through May 8, is the Florida Cup series for statebreds on March 27.