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High Rollers Handicapping Contest Jan. 9 At Tampa Bay Downs

Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., will turn into a proving grounds for top handicappers on Saturday, Jan. 9, during the third annual High Rollers Handicapping Contest, which features a potential first-place prize of $20,000.

The contest is open to anyone willing to put up a $1,000 stake to compete (participants may bankroll up to two entries). Each entry requires a $1,000 deposit, of which $500 serves as the player's wagering bankroll and $500 goes to the prize pool. Any dollar amount remaining in a player's bankroll at the conclusion of the contest goes directly to them, meaning all of the prize money is returned to the entrants.

Wagers will be limited to win, place and/or show, with each player required to bet $100 on five separate races on the card. Anyone wagering on less or more than five races will be disqualified. Cash prizes will be awarded to the top five finishers, with $20,000 to the winner, or 50 percent of the prize pool if there are fewer than 100 entrants; $8,000/20 percent to the second-place finisher; $6,000/15 percent to third; $4,000/10 percent to fourth; and $2,000/5 percent to fifth.

Only races at Tampa Bay Downs on Jan. 9 will be included in the contest, and players must wager at the contest site. The first and second-place finishers will also claim a seat in either of the next two National Thoroughbred Racing Association National Horseplayers Championships (NHC) in Las Vegas (this year's event is currently scheduled Aug. 27-29 at Bally's Las Vegas Hotel & Casino).

Players can enter online the High Rollers Handicapping Contest at www.tampabaydowns.com . The entry deadline is noon on Jan. 9; players should plan on meeting in the VIP Room before noon for final instructions. For additional details, call (813) 855-4401, extension 1368.

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‘He Loves The Horses’: 76-Year-Old Gerald Bennett Named Tampa’s Trainer Of The Month

Gerald Bennett skipped the winner's-circle photograph after Wednesday's second race at Tampa Bay Downs. It wasn't that winning races has become old hat; while his 4-year-old homebred filly Princess Livia received the plaudits, Bennett attended to his other entrant in the race, 5-year-old mare Rattlesnakerose, who finished last of six.

“(Jockey) Danny (Centeno) said the ground broke out from under her on the back end – probably trying to get away so quick,” Bennett said after hosing down Rattlesnakerose and assuring himself she was no worse for the experience.

Meanwhile, Princess Livia was led away, having been claimed from the race for $10,000 by owner-trainer Victor Carrasco, Jr. The $10,000 price tag was the lowest Princess Livia has ever run for. Both runners were owned going into the race by Bennett's Winning Stables enterprise, Rattlesnakerose in partnership.

The horses may be Bennett's babies, but sentiment isn't going to take him where he wants to go.

“A lot of owners get afraid to lose their horses (through the claims box), but the name of the game is to win races,” said Bennett, who won today's first race with still another Winning Stables horse, 2-year-old Florida-bred gelding Foreman.

Bennett knows the name of the game. With 15 victories this meeting, he sits atop the trainer standings and is the inaugural 2020-2021 Salt Rock Tavern Trainer of the Month Award winner.

Bennett has a rapport with horses few trainers achieve. As he walks through his barn at Tampa Bay Downs in the pre-dawn hours, some nicker in recognition, while others get close enough for a nudge they hope will be rewarded with a peppermint candy. All are alert, tuned in and eager to heed the man's teachings.

“He loves the horses. He loves the business,” said his wife, trainer Mary Bennett. “He got in the trailer (on a recent off-day) to take horses to Ocala to be laid up, and when he's there he'll watch horses train to see if he can get another good one. He loves everything about it. Racing is his adrenaline rush,” she said.

His numerous followers often get a rush at the betting windows. Turning beaten horses around is a Bennett trademark, and those caught unawares are often kicking themselves in the parking lot – as on Nov. 28, when a couple of Bennett-trained long shots combined for a $2 late daily double payoff of $181.40.

Bennett, a 76-year-old product of Springhill, Nova Scotia, is off to a typically strong start in his bid for a sixth consecutive Oldsmar training title and seventh title overall. Only Jamie Ness has won more (nine in a row, from 2006-2007 through 2014-2015). With 15 victories, Bennett has earned the inaugural Salt Rock Tavern Trainer of the Month Award of the 2020-2021 meeting.

“We kind of plan for this meeting all year, keep our horses fresh and hopefully everything goes well,” said Bennett, who has a string of 45 runners here. “When you keep your horses happy, they'll run for you. Happy horses enjoy the competition.”

There are going to be setbacks – horses get sick, incur injuries or are claimed by another trainer unexpectedly. Photo-finish losses and disqualifications are a downer, but Bennett always bounces back stronger.

“When that other stuff happens, you have to keep going, keep working hard,” Bennett said. “You try to keep things on an even keel and do the job the right way.”

Bennett races many of his horses as an owner under his Winning Stables, Inc., banner, and last season he captured his first Tampa Bay Downs owners title with 24 victories.

Bennett may call Tampa home, but he has enjoyed many big days and excellent horses elsewhere. His top horses includes Grade 1 winner and millionaire Beau Genius, Secret Romeo, Banker's Jet, Fast Flying Rumor and R Angel Katelyn.

Bennett has 3,935 career winners, 14th on the all-time North American list. He trails only the late Frank H. Merrill, Jr. (3,974 victories) among Canadian-born trainers. Then, hopefully, the 4,000-victory milestone and another reminder that somewhere on the Tampa Bay Downs backstretch exists Bennett's private Fountain of Youth.

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Tapit Half To Arrogate Breaks Her Maiden At Tampa Bay Downs

During Thursday's sixth race for maiden 2-year-old fillies at Tampa Bay Downs, trainer Barbara Minshall got a workout watching Diamond Ore battle two equally determined rivals down the stretch of the mile-and-40-yard event.

“I was riding her from the quarter-mile pole home,” Minshall said jokingly after Diamond Ore's half-length victory from Purtiz. Forbidden Dream was another neck back in third in the seven-horse field.

Diamond Ore is by one of the world's leading sires, Tapit, and she is out of the Distorted Humor mare Bubbler, making her a half-sister to Arrogate. That Bob Baffert-trained runner won the 2016 Travers and Breeders' Cup Classic and the 2017 Pegasus World Cup Invitational and Dubai World Cup Sponsored By Emirates Airline, en route to becoming North American Thoroughbred racing's all-time money-earner with $17,422,600.

Samy Camacho rode the winner, who completed the distance in 1:42.25.

Minshall, who trains the regally bred winner for owner Bernard Cleary's Clearview Stable, was especially pleased with Diamond Ore's effort in light of it being her first start on a dirt track. Her three previous tries, including a second-place finish Nov. 14 racing a mile-and-a-sixteenth, were on the all-weather surface at Woodbine in Toronto.

“She is really a nice filly who wants to go longer, and I wanted to give her a little experience,” Minshall said. “Hopefully she learned something from that. The first time she had even worked on dirt was last week (5 furlongs in 1:01 4/5 at Sequel @ Winding Oaks Farms in Ocala), and she worked really well that day.

“Samy rode her perfectly. We've had a lot of luck with him,” Minshall said.

Camacho said he was able to track pace-setter Purtiz and Forbidden Dream comfortably from mid-pack before launching his winning bid at the 3/8-mile pole. But there was no quit in those two, and he had to work hard to secure the victory.

“I was sweating at the top of the stretch, but my filly kept fighting and did the job,” Camacho said.

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Tim Hamm-Trained Juvenile Filly Charge It All Earns Shot At Gasparilla Stakes

These days, when trainer Tim Hamm sends out a 2-year-old filly, Thoroughbred racing followers sit up and take notice. Charge It All gave Tampa Bay Downs fans and simulcast viewers something to keep in mind in Sunday's second race.

The Kentucky-bred juvenile, owned in partnership by Hamm's Blazing Meadows Farm and her breeder, Three Chimneys Farm, moved smartly to the lead on the turn for home and kept her mind on business under jockey Wilmer Garcia en route to a 1 ½-length victory from Special Princess in the 6 ½-furlong, allowance/$75,000 optional claiming event for 2-year-old fillies.

Charge It All's time on a fast track was 1:18.30.

“I like this horse a lot,” Hamm said. “At this time last year, she was really fat and she looked kind of like a cow. I didn't know if she would ever slim down, but after being in Miami in June, July and August, she got some scope to her and has turned into a real nice filly. I'm pleased with her performance. I think there is some upside to her.”

Charge It All benefited from a lively speed duel between pace-setter Splash Cash and R Averie Lynn before Garcia popped the question approaching the 3/8-mile pole and she took off.

Hamm credits his assistant, Julie Hutchison, for getting Charge It All into solid racing shape in south Florida during the summer prior to the filly's first start on Sept. 17 at Gulfstream Park. The daughter of Will Take Charge-Invalida, by Street Cry, is now 2-for-3.

Hamm's success earlier this year with his 2-year-old filly Dayoutoftheoffice, owned by Blazing Meadows Farm in partnership with Siena Farm, brought the conditioner widespread attention within the sport. She went 3-for-4 this year, winning the Grade 3 Schuylerville Stakes at Saratoga and the G1 Frizette at Belmont before settling for a second-place finish to Vequist in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Keeneland. The Frizette was Hamm's first G1 victory.

Certain to be an Eclipse Award finalist for Champion 2-Year-Old Filly, Dayoutoftheoffice is at Siena Farm in Paris, Ky., and will soon be sent to Hamm's Blazing Meadows South in Ocala to begin preparations for her 3-year-old season. She earned $556,500 this year.

Every horse develops at a different rate and Hamm isn't ready to get too far ahead of himself with Charge It All. At the same time, he says the $125,000, seven-furlong Gasparilla Stakes for newly turned 3-year-old fillies on Jan. 16 is a likely next start, provided she rebounds well from Sunday's effort.

“Julie was mad at me because I didn't nominate her for the (six-furlong Sandpiper Stakes on Dec. 5), but we knew this allowance was coming up,” Hamm said. “Now, it's kind of like we have nothing to lose (by racing in the Gasparilla). I'm not too ambitious yet, but I'm ambitious enough to let her tell us where to go next.”

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