March, 2022 | Horse Racing Free Tips

Weekend Lineup: Big Saturday In Tampa Led By Derby Points Race

Sports mania descends on Tampa, Fla., this weekend, with the Tampa Bay Derby card scheduled for Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs and March Madness continues with the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament in town through Sunday (go Big Blue!).

Tampa Bay Downs' card features a quartet of graded stakes races: the G2 Tampa Bay Derby, G2 Hillsborough, G3 Challenger, and G3 Florida Oaks.

Outside the sphere of March Madness, this weekend's live racing action includes a big showdown at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark. Champion and Breeders' Cup winner Ce Ce will take on 2021 Azeri (G2) winner Shedaresthedevil in this year's edition of the 1 1/16-mile contest.

Other stakes action this weekend includes a pair of G3 contests at Santa Anita Park, the G3 Hurricane Bertie at Gulfstream, a couple of listed stakes races at Aqueduct, and the return of Grade 2 winner California Angel to the grass at the Fair Grounds.

Despite being the only graded stakes winner in the field, having taken down the Jessamine Stakes (G2) at Keeneland in October, Chris Walsh's California Angel has been installed as the 8-1 seventh choice for Saturday's $75,000 Allen “Black Cat” Lacombe Memorial at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in New Orleans, La.

The New York Racing Association Inc. (NYRA) will host an all-stakes Cross Country Pick 5 on Saturday featuring racing from Aqueduct Racetrack, Oaklawn Park and Tampa Bay Downs.

Saturday

3:14 p.m. – G2 Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs

Nine horses are entered in the Hillsborough, in which a highly anticipated rematch is slated between 4-year-old fillies Bleecker Street (4-for-4) and Lady Speightspeare, the 1-2 finishers in the G3 Endeavour Stakes here on Feb. 5. Bleecker Street is trained by Chad Brown, who is tied with Pletcher for most Hillsborough victories with four apiece.

Bleecker Street will be ridden by Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr., the only jockey she has known. Lady Speightspeare, a Grade 1 winner as a 2-year-old, is trained by Roger Attfield and has the services of Emma-Jayne Wilson, her only rider in six career starts.

Hillsborough Entries

5:23 p.m. – G2 Tampa Bay Derby at Tampa Bay Downs

Classic Causeway, who is expected to be the wagering favorite, drew the No. 4 post position for the Tampa Bay Derby. Irad Ortiz, Jr., who was aboard for his Sam F. Davis Stakes victory, will again ride Classic Causeway for owners Kentucky West Racing, LLC and Clarke M. Cooper and trainer Brian Lynch.

The top four finishers will receive 50, 20, 10 and 5 points toward qualifying for the Kentucky Derby on May 7 at Churchill Downs. Classic Causeway is 11th in the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” standings with 16 points.

Among Classic Causeway's Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby rivals are Giant Game, the third-place finisher in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Del Mar, trained by Dale Romans and to be ridden by Joe Talamo from the No. 5 post; Major General, winner of the G3 Iroquois Stakes on Sept. 18 at Churchill Downs in his most recent start, trained by five-time Tampa Bay Derby-winning conditioner Todd Pletcher, with Javier Castellano named to ride from the No. 8 post; and two-time stakes winner and Sam F. Davis runner-up Shipsational, trained by Edward Barker, with Manuel Franco aboard from the No. 9 post.

Tampa Bay Derby Entries

6:10 p.m. – G2 Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn Park

A champion and one with championship aspirations meet for the first time in the $350,000 Azeri Stakes (G2) for older fillies and mares Saturday at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark.

The Azeri has drawn an outstanding cast of nine, led by 2021 Eclipse Award-winning female sprinter Ce Ce for Southern California-based trainer Michael McCarthy and defending champion Shedaresthedevil, a millionaire multiple Grade 1 winner for trainer Brad Cox. Also entered are multiple Grade 3 winner Pauline's Pearl for Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen and Grade 3 winner Lady Mystify for trainer Peter Eurton.

Azeri Entries

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Daniel Centeno Heads Local Riders Looking For Upsets On Tampa’s Festival Day

Daniel Centeno had an uneasy feeling as his mount in the 2014 Grade 2 Tampa Bay Derby, Ring Weekend, lengthened his lead along the backstretch to six lengths. If there was ever a moment for the normally unflappable jockey to become panic-stricken, this was it.

“I didn't want to be going that fast, especially when everybody was watching. I thought (trainer) Graham (Motion) and the owners were going to kill me if he didn't win,” Centeno recalled. “But he was doing it so comfortably, I didn't want to fight him. When he was still running at the top of the stretch, I thought 'Oh my goodness. We're going to win.' ”

A 14-1 shot that day, Ring Weekend had broken his maiden a month earlier at Gulfstream Park in his fifth career start. He would go on to become a world-class turf horse, winning five additional graded stakes, including the G1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile in 2015 at Santa Anita.

Thanks, in some measure, to Centeno's decision to just go along for the ride in the gelding's lone Tampa Bay Downs start.

That was one of two victories for Centeno in the Oldsmar oval's premier race, to be contested for the 42nd time Saturday at about 5:23 p.m.

Centeno, who also won the 2009 edition on Musket Man, is the only locally-based jockey to win the race twice.

The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby will be broadcast live on “America's Day at the Races” on FS2 and on TVG.

Two years ago, Samy Camacho broke a five-year losing streak for the local riding colony aboard 49-1 shot King Guillermo, and Jose Ferrer won the race last year on 15-1 shot Helium. Prior to King Guillermo, out-of-town jockeys had won seven out of eight runnings.

Saturday, Centeno – the Salt Rock Tavern Jockey of the Month – will bid to become the first jockey to win the G2 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby three times with Trademark, a 3-year-old gelding owned by BBN Racing, LLC and trained by Victoria Oliver. Trademark will break from the No. 2 post in the 1 1/16-mile “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points race.

The five other jockeys to win the race twice comprise a virtual “Who's Who” of saddle excellence: Pat Day (Parade Ground in 1998, Limehouse in 2004); Richard Migliore (Wheelaway in 2000, Burning Roma in 2001); Eibar Coa (Region of Merit in 2003, Big Truck in 2008); John Velazquez (Verrazano in 2013, Carpe Diem in 2015); and Jose Ortiz (Tapwrit in 2017, Tacitus in 2019).

Four other Tampa Bay Downs jockeys have mounts in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby. Camacho will break from the No. 1 post on Grantham; Antonio Gallardo will ride Golden Glider from the No. 6 post; Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr., will be aboard the Motion-trained Belgrade from the No. 10 post; and Jesus Castanon is on Spin Wheel, who breaks from the outside No. 12 position.

Classic Causeway, who won the G3 Sam F. Davis Stakes here on Feb. 12 by 3 ¾ lengths from Shipsational, is the 8-5 morning-line favorite under jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., who rode five winners on the Sam F. Davis card.

Post time for Saturday's first race is 12:15 p.m. The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby is the 11th of 12 races scheduled. Four other stakes are featured on the Festival Day 42 card: the Grade 2, $225,000 Hillsborough Stakes on the turf; the Grade 3, $200,000 Florida Oaks on the turf; the Grade 3, $100,000 Michelob Ultra Challenger on the main track; and the $75,000 Columbia Stakes on the turf.

Centeno, a 50-year-old Venezuela product who has won six Oldsmar riding titles (tied with Mike Manganello), has ridden in the Tampa Bay Derby 10 times. He finished third last year aboard 34-1 shot Moonlite Strike.

Centeno is also named to ride 4-year-old filly Gladys in the Hillsborough and 4-year-old colt Hidden Stash in the Michelob Ultra Challenger, a race the jockey won last year on Last Judgment.

Trademark, normally a front-running sort who was 2-for-4 as a 2-year-old, experienced traffic troubles in the early going of the Sam F. Davis.

“There was a lot of speed in that race, and he didn't get a clean trip,” said Centeno, who did not persevere after Trademark fell from contention. “I'm grateful (Oliver) is giving me the opportunity to ride him back.”

BBN Racing and Oliver also own and train Hidden Stash, whom Centeno has ridden this season in a pair of Oldsmar allowance/optional claiming races on the turf, finishing second and third. Hidden Stash showed a decided liking for the Tampa Bay Downs main surface as a 3-year-old, finishing third in the Sam F. Davis and second in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby.

“He's had good races on the dirt and was closing late in the (Lambholm South) Tampa Bay Derby, so I think he's got a good shot,” Centeno said.

Gladys, who won her last start by 6 ½ lengths with Centeno aboard last month in a turf allowance, is getting a chance to prove she belongs against the likes of probable co-favorites Bleecker Street and Lady Speightspeare in the Hillsborough. Gladys is owned by Dede McGehee and trained by Kelsey Danner.

“She ran beautiful last time and when I asked her turning for home, she really opened up on the field,” Centeno said. “This race is more competitive and it looks like there is more early speed, but she is rateable and doing well.”

Perhaps rounding into the best form of her career, Gladys (by Medaglia d'Oro-Lotta Kim, by Roar) will attempt to honor the memory of her sister Rachel Alexandra, the 2009 Horse of the Year who won that year's Preakness against males.

Centeno said he is “grateful, thankful and blessed” to get mounts in three of the five Festival Day 42 stakes. He did it the old-fashioned way – he earned them, by keeping himself in outstanding shape and riding each claiming and allowance horse with the same skill and passion he brings to major stakes.

“He's a classy professional who comes well-prepared for every race, from watching replays and studying the form,” said John Weilbacher, Centeno's agent.

Make no mistake: Centeno gets the same pleasure entering a winner's circle as he did when he won his six Tampa Bay Downs riding titles from 2006-2007 through 2016-2017.

“I'm doing my job well right now, focusing and working hard. I like to ride for everyone. My agent does a great job getting me good opportunities, and I have to keep enjoying them while I can.”

But Centeno – the track's all-time leader in wins, with 1,463, and stakes victories, with 54 – finds his greatest joy when he is surrounded by the women in his life. His partner, Brooke Sillaman, their 5-month-old daughter Sophia, and the jockey's 13-year-old daughter Jazmyn fill his life with contentment and love.

“It (having another child) is a blessing,” said Centeno, who earned the Salt Rock Tavern Jockey of the Month Award by winning 11 races over a period of 10 racing days. “It makes me feel younger, and I'm happy every day. Brooke and I agree on almost everything, but we always talk things through and look at the pros and cons before we make a decision. We have a really good relationship.”

Sillaman, 29, is the daughter of Thoroughbred trainer Richard Sillaman. She works as a chiropractor's assistant, and there are nights when the child-rearing duties rest squarely on Centeno's shoulders.

“That's something you never forget,” said Centeno, laughing. “First Danny (his 22-year-old son, an online marketer), then Jazmyn, and now Sophia. I love everything about it – the diapers, the feeding, putting her back to sleep. We have a beautiful little girl and everybody is happy.”

Centeno, who has ridden 10 graded-stakes winners, has 3,144 career victories in North America to go with the 847 he rode in Venezuela. He is fifth in the Oldsmar standings with 34 winners, after finishing third last season. His 18-percent strike rate exceeds all but Pablo Morales and Samy Camacho among local jockeys with 20 or more victories – a clear indication his skills and drive to succeed are at a high level.

Simply put, Centeno brings the same laser focus to his job as he does when dealing with Sophia's care.

“I think (being with Sillaman) has had a great effect. He is very happy in his personal life,” Weilbacher said.

Centeno, who plans to return to Delaware Park in May and compete at various mid-Atlantic racetracks throughout the spring and summer, relishes the competitive nature of the Tampa Bay Downs colony.

“You look at this season, and so many guys are right there,” he said. “It seems like everyone is winning their share of races.”

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Indiana Horse Racing Commission Implements Strict Thyroid Supplementation Restrictions

During its meeting on March 1, 2022, the Indiana Horse Racing Commission passed a new rule regulating thyroxine administration. Effective immediately for both flat and harness racing, thyroid supplementation is now prohibited.

According to the advisory disseminated by the IHRC, the administration of thyroxine has been found to be given in racehorses unrelated to the horses' thyroid health. The practice of prescribing thyroxine to large numbers of racehorses has drawn public scrutiny and has resulted in inquiries about the legitimacy of its use, as the occurrence of primary hypothyroidism in horses is rare, especially in young, fit racehorses.

It is now prohibited to have possession of thyroxine, any thyroid analog, or thyroid supplement without meeting the conditions set forth in the new rule. Both of the following conditions must be met in order to administer thyroid supplements:

A thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) response test has been performed by a commission-licensed veterinarian and supports a diagnosis of hypothyroidism in the horse. (A T3 or T4 test without stimulation of the thyroid is insufficient to diagnose hypothyroidism.)
A commission-licensed veterinarian has submitted the TRH response test result to the equine medical director, and the equine medical director approves the thyroxine prescription based on their independent determination that the test result confirms the hypothyroidism diagnosis.

If approved by the equine medical director, the horse shall be treated with only Federal Drug Administration approved medications for hypothyroidism prescribed by a veterinarian. Possession of any thyroid supplements that are not pursuant to a veterinary prescription is prohibited.

The prescription for thyroxine or any other thyroid hormone or thyroid hormone analog administration shall not exceed ninety (90) calendar days, after which the prescription must be reauthorized by the equine medical director under either of the following circumstances:

The equine medical director has determined that the horse has benefited from the previous thyroxine, thyroid hormone, or thyroid hormone analog treatment after reviewing the horse's medical records and consulting with the attending veterinarian.
The hypothyroid diagnosis has been reconfirmed under the requirements described above.

A horse administered thyroxine or any other thyroid hormone or thyroid hormone analog, pursuant to these new rules, is ineligible to start in a race for thirty (30) calendar days after the last administration.

If a horse is currently being administered a thyroid supplement, administration of the supplement shall be discontinued, and a TRH test conducted after a thirty (30) day washout period before the horse is eligible to race.

The full advisory is available here.

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This Side Up: A Model Flagship For Stormy Seas

There is always something especially shocking about the death of a stallion in his prime. Nature contains no more vivid an incarnation of vitality than this most literal of life forces, daily renewing the gift of existence. For a candle as bright as Get Stormy to be extinguished so abruptly, then, will leave a grievous void at Crestwood Farm.

Having spent five years in training, even at 16, Get Stormy's second career was only just entering its key phase. For not until the next year or two will his best stock start reaching the track, his books having soared in both quality and quantity after an early stakes barrage led, from his second crop, by triple Grade I winner Got Stormy. No less than her name implies, she was inlaid with the watertight genetic teak of her sire, matching his own record of graded stakes success through four consecutive campaigns.

It's all there in the McLean family slogan, “We raise runners.” In a business where so many horses are raised to do no more than stand and stroll, with breeders heading for the hills the moment the gavel comes down, that fairly rudimentary aspiration has an almost quixotic quality. But a trademark combination of blood and guts governs nearly the whole Crestwood roster: Jack Milton (War Front), for instance, won a Grade I at five and, much like Get Stormy himself with Moccasin (Nantallah), brings into play a Claiborne matriarch in Bourtai (Stimulus); while Heart To Heart (English Channel) won graded stakes annually from three to seven.

Get Stormy's nickname on the farm was Clyde, because he had so much brawn and timber that he evoked a Clydesdale. I've always had a mad theory (actually supported by the stats) that his reputation as a turf sire is self-fulfilling, and that his physical stamp, toughness, and speed-carrying style were ideally tailored for dirt. Be that as it may, despite nudging an initial fee of $5,000 no farther than $7,500, Get Stormy already leaves us half a dozen graded stakes winners. (That's as many as Maclean's Music, for instance, from the same intake.) And his two millionaires to date were respectively out of a $4,500 Malabar Gold mare, and a daughter of Brahms unsold at $18,000 on her only visit to the ring.

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Two days after Get Stormy's loss, on just the other side of Georgetown Road, the venerable heart of Go For Gin also gave out at the Kentucky Horse Park, his home since retiring from stud in 2011. At 31, he had been the oldest surviving Derby winner—and long enjoyed precisely the kind of dignified, pampered retirement everyone was someday anticipating, a few years down the line, for Get Stormy.

But while life's disasters seldom arrive with any rhyme or reason, perhaps we can glimpse some timely succor for Crestwood. Because any clients with mares booked to Get Stormy should certainly consider another stallion on the roster, also from the Storm Cat line, who only last weekend reiterated the striking promise he has shown from minimal opportunity to date.

Firing Line has mustered no more than 39 starters from his first couple of crops but 24 of them have already won and, having burdened him this winter with a place on a TDN “Value Podium”, I was delighted to see Venti Valentine confirm her candidature for the GI Kentucky Oaks with a seven-length romp in the Busher S. last Saturday. Other credits to Firing Line include Nakatomi's success in the Bowman's Mill S. at Keeneland last fall, after placing in the GII Saratoga Special S.; plus the recent Fair Grounds romp of his $210,000 2-year-old Oscarette.

Besides beating all bar a Triple Crown winner in the Derby, don't forget that Firing Line was only denied a juvenile Grade I by a head and broke the track record in winning the GIII Sunland Park Derby by 14 lengths. True to Crestwood principles, moreover, his talent was rooted in a mile-deep pedigree: his dam is a Grade I-placed sibling to the mothers of two Grade I-winning milers, their line extending to matriarchs Kamar (Key to the Mint) and Square Angel (Quadrangle).

Whether or not Firing Line can fill the breach, Get Stormy will undoubtedly be making posthumous additions to his legacy. After all, Giant's Causeway himself—perhaps the greatest conduit of all, for this sire-line—is not quite done yet, even though he bequeathed just three foals from a handful of final coverings before his death in the spring of 2018. Incredibly, two of them now line up together for the GII Langholm South Tampa Bay Derby with a total of 85 gate points on the line for the first Saturday in May.

Curiously, both were born on 22 February 2019. Classic Causeway is being brought along beautifully at Palm Meadows by Brian Lynch, with a foundation of longer breezes for his comeback before dialing up the speed since; while Giant Game has himself been working the house down after some running repairs on a displaced palate.

Still more remarkably, it was only last week that the final Giant's Causeway of all—born eight days after the other pair—made a winning debut for Shadwell in Dubai, charging clear by four and a half lengths. So the hope that the Iron Horse might “rust in peace”, which may sound irreverent but intends a wholly affectionate tribute to his ferrous qualities, is proving happily misplaced. This is not the dull shimmer of iron, but a last glint of genetic gold.

Perhaps Giant's Causeway is looking down in vexation after his son Protonico just had a Derby winner effaced from the record. Depending how things go at Tampa Bay, however, maybe this time he won't have merely a vicarious presence at Churchill, admirably though he is being represented by Not This Time.

Mind you, even giant steps must always be made one at a time. The card also features the resumption, at long last, of the colt who looked like the pick of his crop this time last year. Let's hope the patience of everyone involved with Greatest Honour (Tapit) finds due reward in his maturity.

Ironically, his own sire's frustrating sophomore career gave a quite misleading impression about the toughness he has tended to impart to his stock; and someday, no doubt, Greatest Honour will validly recycle one of the best pedigrees you will ever see.

Certainly he won't be one of those stallions, so corrosive to the breed, that teeter to market on a wafer-thin page and a whizzbang speedfigure or two. The Thoroughbred's vocation is not for the flimsy of limb, nor the faint of heart. So while Crestwood may have lost their flagship, they have not lost their bearings. They are navigating by the stars, by the fixed points of soundness and pedigree, and we would all do well to follow in their wake.

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