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Nominations Plentiful For Inaugural Turf Champions Day Stakes At Tampa Bay Downs

The highly acclaimed Tampa Bay Downs turf course will grab the spotlight on Feb. 5 during the track's inaugural Turf Champions Day, which features a pair of Grade 3 stakes for older horses.

Part of the track's Festival Preview Day showcase in recent years, both the $175,000 Tampa Bay Stakes for horses 4-years-old-and-upward and the $175,000 Endeavour Stakes for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward will be run on the grass at a distance of 1 1/16 miles. Track officials believe allowing both races to stand alone on a high-caliber stakes card will enhance the Oldsmar oval's burgeoning turf racing program.

Peter Berube, the track's vice president and general manager, said moving both races up a week on the calendar should benefit both the turf and main track stakes programs.

“When you look at some of the recent winners of the Endeavour and the Tampa Bay Stakes – horses such as Tepin, Zagora and World Approval – as well as winning trainers like Claude McGaughey, Todd Pletcher, Mark Casse, Chad Brown and Graham Motion, it becomes obvious that our turf course is considered one of the safest and most consistent in the sport,” Berube said.

“By offering both races on a day when they will be the most lucrative turf stakes anywhere in the nation, we are hopeful of widespread exposure for both the turf and the main track, as well as the facility and our overall quality of racing,” Berube added.

Nominations for both races closed Saturday in the Tampa Bay Downs racing office, with the 36^th running of the Tampa Bay Stakes attracting 37 horses and the 23^rd running of the Endeavour drawing 32.

Moving the two races ahead on the stakes calendar also allows trainers of the Endeavour starters additional time to prepare for the Grade 2, $250,000 Hillsborough Stakes for fillies and mares, part of the track's March 12 Festival Day card highlighted by the 42^nd running of the Grade 2, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby.

The Oldsmar oval's restructured Festival Preview Day card on Feb. 12, meanwhile, now consists of the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes for 3-year-olds, which awards qualifying points to the first four finishers on the “Road to the Kentucky Derby;” the $150,000 Suncoast Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, a “Road to the Kentucky Oaks” points race; the $100,000 Pelican Stakes for horses 4-and-upward sprinting six furlongs; and the $50,000 Minaret Stakes for fillies and mares 4-and-upward at six furlongs.

The list of Tampa Bay Stakes nominees is headed by Lawana L. and Robert E. Low's 5-year-old horse Colonel Liam, who won a pair of Grade 1 turf stakes last year. The lightly raced (6-for-9) career millionaire is trained by Todd Pletcher.

Get Smokin, who won last year's Tampa Bay Stakes out of the barn of trainer Thomas Bush and is now trained by Mark Casse, is also nominated, along with a number of accomplished campaigners.

That group includes millionaire and multiple-Grade 2 winner Cross Border, an 8-year-old trained by Mike Maker; Devamani, an 8-year-old multiple graded-stakes winning gelding trained by Chad Brown who was second in the Tampa Bay Stakes two years ago; Maker's multiple graded-stakes winner Field Pass, an earner of more than $900,000; Pletcher's 6-year-old gelding Largent, who may be rounding into form after spending most of 2021 on the sidelines; and Sole Volante, trainer Patrick Biancone's 5-year-old gelding who won the 2020 Sam F. Davis Stakes and was runner-up in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby.

Here is a link to the entire list of Tampa Bay Stakes nominees, followed by a link to their past performances:

https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SN-TAM-20220205-573143

https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SNPP-TAM-20220205-573143

Owners Lawana and Robert Low and trainer Pletcher also have one of the top Endeavour Stakes nominees in the popular 5-year-old mare Sweet Melania, a multiple graded-stakes winner who captured the Grade 3 Suwanee River Stakes at Gulfstream in her most recent start and finished third in the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

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One of the more intriguing Endeavour nominees is 4-year-old filly Lady Speightspeare, who won the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes as a 2-year-old and the Grade 2 Bessarabian at 3, both at Woodbine. She is trained by Roger Attfield.

Other leading nominees include Pletcher's consistent multiple graded-stakes winner, Always Shopping; Brown's unbeaten (3-for-3) 4-year-old filly, Bleecker Street; Gift List, 4-year-old Grade 2 winner who has never been out of the money in eight starts, trained by Brian Lynch; and Wakanaka, a 4-year-old Irish-bred who was 6-for-8 in Italy, trained by Bill Mott.

Here is a link to the entire list of Endeavour Stakes nominees, followed by a link to their past performances:

https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SN-TAM-20220205-573141

https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SNPP-TAM-20220205-573141

Thoroughbred racing continues Wednesday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:15 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs races on a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule, with the exception of Easter Sunday, April 17, when the track is closed.

Otherwise, the Oldsmar oval is open every day for simulcast wagering, no-limits poker action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.

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First U.S. Runner for El Kabeir A ‘Rising Star’

Peter Brant's Salimah (Ire) (El Kabeir), the first American starter for her Yeomanstown Stud-based sire and former 'TDN Rising Star', matched that feat with a highly impressive debut success Saturday afternoon at Tampa Bay Downs.

As skinny as 4-5 in the latter stages of the wagering, the Peter Brant runner eased out all the way to 7-5 and was 13-10 when the gates flew. Off to a hesitant beginning beneath Samy Camacho, Salimah was allowed to find a rhythm and raced with just two of her rivals behind her as they hit the first turn. Quietly ridden through the middle stages and guided out into the clear, the filly–a gray like her sire–was consigned to a four- and five-wide run on the turn and was flushed out into the seven or eight path at the top of the lane. But continuing on undaunted, Salimah leveled off beautifully down the center of the course, hit the front under a full head of steam at the furlong grounds and widened with every stride to score by a good five lengths in a time that belies the strength of the peformance.

Bred by Yeomanstown Stud out of the stakes-winning Promised Money, a mare by the nursery's stalwart stallion Dark Angel (Ire), Salimah–a half-sister to the Group 3-placed Fivethousandtoone (Ire) (Frankel {GB})–cost Brant and company 180,000gns at the 2020 Tattersalls October Yearlings Sale, easily the most expensive of 60 first-crop yearlings by El Kabeir that season. A half-sister to SW Beldale Memory (Ire) (Camacho {GB), Promised Money is the dam of a 2-year-old colt by the outstanding Lope de Vega (Ire) and a yearling filly by Invincible Army (Ire).

El Kabeir cost Zayat Stables co-salestopping $250,000 at the 2013 OBS August Yearling Sale and earned his 'Rising Star' when hosing up by 10 3/4 lengths at second asking at Saratoga in 2014. He closed his freshman campaign with a game success in the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. and celebrated the turn of the calendar with a 4 3/4-length romp in the GIII Jerome S. at Aqueduct. He added a convincing score in the GIII Gotham S. and was also a good third to Frosted in the 2015 GI Wood Memorial S. His first crop to the races has now yielded 18 winners in nine jurisdictions, including Group 2 scorer Don Chicco (GB) and other stakes winner Masekela (Ire) and Sa Filonzana (Ire). El Kabeir is standing his fifth year at stud for a fee of €6,000.

10th-Tampa Bay Downs, $25,150, Msw, 1-22, 3yo, f, 1mT, 1:38.52, fm, 4 3/4 lengths.
SALIMAH (IRE) (f, 3, El Kabeir–Promised Money {Ire} {SW-Ire, SP-Eng}, by Dark Angel {Ire}) Sales history: 180,000gns Ylg '20 TATOCT. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $14,500. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Click for the free Equineline.com catalog-style pedigree.
O-Peter M Brant; B-Yeomanstown Stud (IRE); T-Chad C Brown.

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Samy Camacho Rides Four Winners Friday At Tampa Bay Downs

Samy Camacho has been performing like a man on a mission over the last six racing days at Tampa Bay Downs.

Camacho, who won last year's Oldsmar riding title with 111 victories, has ridden far more horses this season than any other jockey, a tribute to the rider's skills and athleticism as well as the hustling of his agent, Mike Moran.

And since many of the track's higher-percentage trainers like using Camacho, the winners are inevitably starting to pile up.

The 33-year-old Caracas, Venezuela product rode four winners Friday, giving him 35 for the meet – eight ahead of runner-up Pablo Morales. More notably, Camacho has 14 victories from his last 40 mounts, with 12 seconds and five thirds.

That serious run of success includes a victory last Saturday for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott with the 3-year-old Florida-bred filly Outfoxed in the $125,000 Gasparilla Stakes.

Camacho's most exciting victory Friday came in the seventh race on the turf, a one-mile maiden special weight race for 3-year-olds. Refusing to accept defeat, Camacho kept scrubbing on the Chad Brown-trained first-time starter Napoleonic War, pushing the colt into a dead-heat with another first-time starter, trainer Christophe Clement's colt Seigneur, ridden by Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr.

“I thought I lost it when I crossed the wire, and I was a little mad because I knew he was better than the other horses in the race,” Camacho said. “He was a little bit hyper in the gate, just playing around, and when the doors opened he propped up and lost the break. The pace was slow and I was on heels all the way, but when I asked him he came flying.

“I think that horse wins by 5 lengths if he doesn't miss the break, but I kept trying and we got a dead-heat. When I ride for Chad Brown, I feel like I'm driving a Rolls-Royce,” Camacho said.

Camacho began Friday's card with victories in his first two tries. He won the second race on Mystery Mo, a 4-year-old gelding owned by Averill Racing and trained by Gerald Bennett. Camacho returned to the winner's circle after the third race with Berhanu, a 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Chuncho Bravo Stable & Farm and trained by Javier Morzan.

In the sixth race, Camacho helped 4-year-old Florida-bred filly Cajun Spice earn her first career victory for owners Karyn Philipp and Tage Boohit. Philipp is the trainer.

Camacho also had a second and a fourth on the card.

Almost two-thirds of the meet remains for Morales, five-time champion Antonio Gallardo and Fernando De La Cruz to carve into Camacho's lead in the standings. But as long as Camacho stays healthy and keeps believing in himself, his rivals will be hard-pressed to prevent him from a successful defense.

“I feel great. I have a lot of confidence in myself and Mike Moran,” Camacho said. “I feel happy when I get to ride a lot of horses, because I have more chances to win more races.”

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Tampa Bay Downs: Trainer Michael Wright Runs Consecutive Win Streak To Six

Gina Wright had a dream last Friday night. Her husband, trainer Michael Wright, was standing in the Tampa Bay Downs winner's circle after capturing his sixth consecutive victory at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.

Entering Saturday's $50,000 Wayward Lass Stakes, that scenario seemed like a pipe dream to most observers. The conditioner had entered the 7-year-old Colebrook Farms mare Nantucket Red, who would go off at odds of 15-1. Her surprising three-length victory under jockey Olaf Hernandez brought Gina's dream a step closer to reality, and Hernandez made it happen in Sunday's third race with a cagey ride aboard 11-10 favorite More Chances.

The 5-year-old gelding, who was breaking his maiden in his 14th start, is owned by Wright's assistant, Mike Dunslow, who claimed More Chances for $5,000 from his previous start on Nov. 12 at Woodbine in Toronto.

“When you put them in the right race, that's all that matters,” Wright said. “That's what you told me years ago,” Dunslow agreed. “Don't put them in over their heads.”

Now, Wright – perhaps best known as the trainer of Scotzanna, who won a pair of Sovereign Awards in 1995 as Canada's Champion Sprinter and Champion 3-Year-Old Filly – is chasing some serious Oldsmar oval history. In 1977, trainer E.T. Clark won with nine consecutive starters, when the track was known as Florida Downs, from Jan. 28-Feb. 4. Wright will try for seven in a row in Wednesday's eighth race with 6-year-old gelding Victor's Destiny, also owned by Dunslow. Hernandez will be aboard.

Besides being a Thoroughbred owner, Gina Wright is a nurse who often works nights, and was unable to attend the races Saturday. That's OK, now, as long as she keeps getting her dream-inducing slumber.

Hernandez engineered dream trips in both weekend victories for Wright's charges. “He did a great job. He's a hard worker and he's at the barn every morning,” Wright said.

The Wright barn is a fun place to be a part of, made more so by the current winning streak. “He (Wright) is the warden and I'm the assistant warden,” Dunslow said.

And for now, they are taking no prisoners.

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