Zenden takes Pelican, The Goddess Lyssa wins Minaret

Front-runners emerged victorious in both six-furlong stakes for older horses Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., although Zenden had to work much harder in winning the $75,000 Pelican than did The Goddess Lyssa in the $50,000 Minaret three hours earlier.

The Pelican was run over a track rated fast, whereas its filly-mare counterpart, the Minaret, was run over a surface rendered “good” by earlier rains that forced all turf racing on the 10-race card to the main track.

Zenden in Pelican, narrowly

Always on the lead after breaking sharply from the inside post, Zenden and jockey Samy Camacho were engaged leaving the backstretch by Souper Stonehenge. The two proceeded with their own match race, with Zenden proving best by a head when refusing to forgo a tenuous advantage throughout a ferocious stretch duel.

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Zenden returned $16.40 after finishing in 1:09.85. It was another three lengths back to Edgemont Road in third in a field of seven older horses.

Carlos David trains Zenden, a 5-year-old Kentucky-bred horse by Fed Biz, for LLP Performance Horse. Based across the Florida peninsula at the Palm Meadows training center, Zenden now has won five of 14 starts, with his lone prior stakes victory coming as a 2-year-old in the Buffalo Man at Gulfstream Park in December 2018.

Three of the starters in the 37th running of the Pelican were cross-entered in the Gulfstream Park Sprint, with all three shipping over from the Atlantic Coast to avoid heavily favored Mischevious Alex at their home track. They were Edgemont Road, Shivaree (fifth), and Admiral Lynch (seventh).

‘Lyssa’ at odds-on in Minaret

Registering her first stakes victory, The Goddess Lyssa took command soon after the start and never was seriously challenged thereafter in finishing 3 1/4 lengths ahead of Bronx Beauty, getting the distance in 1:10.02. Poseidon’s Passion was another half-length back in third.

The 40th Minaret marks the fifth win in seven overall starts for The Goddess Lyssa, a 4-year-old Florida-bred by Fury Kapcori.

Daniel Centeno was aboard the winner for Team Equistaff and Gerald Bennett, the perennial leading trainer at Tampa. Bennett risked The Goddess Lyssa for a $40,000 claiming tag in her debut last winter at Tampa and did not lose her.