Wildwood's Beauty heavy favorite in City of Ocala, Marion County Stakes more wide open

Florida-bred 3-year-olds will take center stage Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., where a pair of seven-furlong stakes anchor a 10-race program that starts at 12:20 p.m. Eastern.

With just six starters in each, the $125,000 City of Ocala and the $125,000 Marion County are carded relatively early in the day as races 3 and 5, respectively. Both races are part of the Florida Sire Stakes series, which draws funding through the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association.

After Saturday, Tampa will go without a stakes for five weeks until the Pasco and Gasparilla are run Jan. 18.

City of Ocala Stakes

This is perhaps the most compelling of the co-features, with Wildwood’s Beauty sure to come favored over JP’s Delight and R Prerogative and three longshot fillies.

Trained by Scott Becker for Bill Stiritz, Wildwood’s Beauty has been first or second in all nine starts over dirt, a remarkable record that could make her and jockey Samy Camacho an odds-on favorite. The daughter of Kantharos will be in from her winter base of Gulfstream Park after winning a designated prep for the Sunshine Millions last month at Gulfstream Park West, marking her fifth triumph and giving her a second 90-plus Beyer Speed Figure from her last three starts.

JP’s Delight, for her part, has been sensational in easily winning both career starts with Beyers of 88 and 85, but trainer Kathleen O’Connell readily acknowledges Wildwood’s Beauty as the one to beat.

“The raw talent is definitely there with our filly,” O’Connell said earlier this week while working her Gulf West barn, from where she was scheduled to return Friday night to Tampa. “We don’t have the seasoning the other filly has. It will be very interesting to see how they match up.”

R Prerogative is a reasonable alternative to the two favorites, having won three of five starts since Rich Averill and Clark Freeman turned her over earlier this year to Georgina Baxter. The daughter of Drill earned an 88 Beyer with a three-back allowance romp at Gulfstream.

Marion County Stakes

Baxter has a major contender in R Mercedes Boy, who jumped up with an eye-catching 96 Beyer in easily winning a conditioned-claiming sprint at Gulf West in his last start. The gray gelding will be among a core of well-matched favorites in this colt-and-gelding counterpart to the City of Ocala, along with Gump, Cajun Firecracker, and Well Defined.

Gump, an Arindel homebred, finally turned a corner in September after being defeated in his first nine starts, earning 90 and 91 at Gulf West in his two most recent races.

Cajun Firecracker returns to Florida after a couple of post-claim starts in Louisiana for Saffie Joseph Jr., who has become a fixture in the upper echelons of the Gulfstream training ranks.

Well Defined has gone winless in four starts since winning the Sam F. Davis with blinkers added in February, but his trainer, O’Connell, expects an improved effort Saturday when she takes the blinkers off and gives Antonio Gallardo a leg up.

“He’s training very good,” she said. “I can’t tell you how much time we’ve spent trying to get him to relax and finish up. He didn’t get the best of rides in his last race, but hopefully this will be where he starts showing what he can do again.”