Tag: tampa bay stakes

Tampa Turf Stakes: Bleecker Street Remains Unbeaten, Shirl’s Speight Rallies Under Wilson

After being victimized by Bleecker Street's whirlwind rally in the Grade 3, $175,000 Endeavour Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf, Emma-Jayne Wilson – the jockey on beaten favorite Lady Speightspeare – was ready to turn the tables on someone at Tampa Bay Downs.

Two races later, in the Grade 3, $175,000 Tampa Bay Stakes for males on the turf, Wilson set Lady Speightspeare's stablemate Shirl's Speight loose in the stretch, and the 5-year-old horse responded by running down the race's defending champion, pace-setter Get Smokin, by a length-and-a-half.

“That's horse racing, in a nutshell,” Wilson said after 9-1 shot Shirl's Speight's victory for breeder-owner Charles Fipke and trainer Roger Attfield in 1:41.20 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth. “There are many ups and downs, and you've just got to ride the wave.

“When good horses come around, they'll show their stuff when the time is right.”

The two stakes races were the centerpiece of a spellbinding “Turf Champions Day” card under overcast skies that resulted in long-shots aplenty visiting the winner's circle (including Bleecker Street and Shirl's Speight, although their payoffs were minuscule in comparison to several others).

In the 23rd running of the Endeavour, the sixth race on the card, Wilson was sitting pretty on the lead on Lady Speightspeare at the eighth pole when unbeaten 4-year-old filly Bleecker Street – whose previous victory here on Jan. 8 came in a conditional allowance/optional claiming event – showed her stuff and then some, accelerating from mid-pack under jockey Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr., for a convincing length-and-a-half triumph.

The victory was the first graded-stakes triumph for the 32-year-old Diaz, who might feel like he's uncovered the key to buried treasure after trainer Chad Brown stuck with him following his three previous victories aboard Bleecker Street.

“She never gave me that turn of foot before,” Diaz said of today's performance by the Peter M. Brant-owned filly, now 4-for-4. “Not like that. Today was her best race, by far. The effort she put in was great. I have to thank God and Chad and his entire crew for this opportunity. They've done an amazing job with this filly. I knew she had to prove herself today against these kind of horses, but I was confident she could do it.

“I saw that green light in the stretch and she just took off, and the rest is history.”

The victory was the fourth in the Endeavour's 23-year history for Brown, more than any other conditioner. Bleecker Street posted a time of 1:41.91 on the firm turf course.

“She has won all four times coming off the pace, and being able to work out a trip like that every time is very difficult to do,” Brown said via telephone. “He (Diaz) has ridden her all four times, and I'm very proud of him.

“She had a good post (No. 2), the trip worked out real well and she showed a super turn of foot through the stretch. This filly took time to come around, and my whole staff has done an unbelievable job with her. And Mr. Brant is so patient. We scratched In Italian from the race this morning because we thought bringing her back inside a month was a little soon for her, and we didn't want to run them against each other.

“She (Bleecker Street) stepped up and it turned out to be the right call,” added Brown, who later won the Grade III Withers for 3-year-olds at Aqueduct with Early Voting.

Wilson was disappointed to get beat, but offered no excuses. “Chad's horses have a tendency of doing that to you,” Wilson said. ”I wouldn't give (Lady Speightspeare) any excuses. She had everything go as well as it could. We had a good run at it – we were just second-best.”

Stunning Princess finished third and Jezebel's Kitten was fourth. Bleecker Street paid $16 to win.

The way Get Smokin was sailing along under jockey Antonio Gallardo in the Tampa Bay Stakes, it appeared everyone was running for second at the top of the lane. The 5-year-old gelding hadn't been asked much approaching the stretch in his first start since June 20, but Wilson sensed she was sitting on a powder keg.

“I was interested to see how the pace was going to set up,” Wilson said of Shirl's Speight's performance. “Last time (a Jan. 15 victory here under Gallardo in an allowance/optional claiming race), he was a little keen, but today he settled off the pace nice and the way they kind of ran away from him early, I just wanted to make sure he relaxed and got into position where he was comfortable.”

Reserved near mid-pack, Shirl's Speight was asked for his best when Wilson tipped him out wide and kept to his task to record his second lifetime Grade 3 victory. Floriform finished third and English Bee was fourth.

“I had to thread the needle a little down the lane, but good horses will overcome adversity and he shot through there like he was shot out of a cannon,” Wilson said. “Roger is a Hall of Famer, and he knows how to have them primed and ready.”

Attfield, in fact, is a member of both the U.S. and Canadian Horse Racing Halls of Fame, a status shared by Get Smokin's trainer, Mark Casse.

“We've lost a lot to Roger. He's a wonderful guy and a class act, and good for him,” Casse said.

Attfield had both of his horses ready for top efforts and was thrilled to come away with a victory and a second.

“It (the Tampa Bay Stakes) was a beautiful race, no question,” he said. “I liked the way he did it today – I don't really want him to be speed all the time, but he's got a lot of speed. (Wilson) rode him very well. I definitely thought (Get Smokin) was the horse to beat.

“And our filly (Lady Speightspeare) ran very well for everything she has been through, so it's been a good day.”

Shirl's Speight wins the Tampa Bay Stakes

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Fields Shaping Up For ‘Turf Champions Day’ Stakes At Tampa Bay Downs

The likely fields for the first two graded stakes races of the meet at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla., have begun to take shape, stakes coordinator Gerry Stanislawzyk announced.

Billed as “Turf Champions Day,” the Feb. 5 card is highlighted by a pair of Grade 3, $175,000 events on the grass: the 36th edition of the Tampa Bay Stakes for 4-year-olds and upward and the 23rd running of the Endeavour Stakes for fillies and mares 4 and up. Both races will be run at a distance of 1 1/16 miles.

Tampa Bay Downs-based trainer Arnaud Delacour, who won the Endeavour back-to-back with Hawksmoor in 2019 and Jehozacat in 2020 (both owned by Lael Stables), expects to take aim at his first Tampa Bay Stakes trophy with a pair of 6-year-olds who ran in last year's renewal: owner Mark B. Grier's horse Eons and the Lael Stables-owned gelding Talk Or Listen.

Eons finished second in last year's Tampa Bay Stakes, three-quarters of a length behind winner Get Smokin, while Talk Or Listen was a fast-closing fourth in the 12-horse field.

“We thought this was a good race to bring them both back,” said Delacour, who breezed both horses four furlongs Saturday in cold, windy conditions over the main Tampa Bay Downs dirt track. “We're happy with the way they've been training, and it should be a very competitive race.

“There are a lot of things to like about entering them in that race. The timing is good as far as setting them up for the rest of the year, and they've both been training here, so they don't have to ship in,” Delacour said. “The other thing is the quality of the (Tampa Bay Downs) turf course. It just seems like a good spot for them.”

Eons is a Grade 3 winner with career earnings of $429,785 while Talk Or Listen, who was bred in Ireland, is a Grade 2-placed stakes winner with a career bankroll of $282,459.

“They are very similar horses, class-wise,” Delacour said. “I really can't say one is better than the other.”

On the distaff side, south Florida-based trainer Chad Brown is expected to take two shots at capturing his fourth Endeavour Stakes victory in 11 years. He won the race in 2012 with Zagora, who went on to earn an Eclipse Award as that year's champion grass mare, and added victories in 2015 with Testa Rossi and last year with Counterparty Risk.

Brown's likely entrants are both owned by major client Peter M. Brant. Their 4-year-old filly In Italian, bred in Great Britain, is 2-for-3 lifetime, her most recent victory coming here on Jan. 12 in a one-mile turf allowance in gate-to-wire fashion in a swift 1:34.64.

Brown and Brant's other probable entrant, 4-year-old Bleecker Street, is 3-for-3, with victories at three different tracks. She made her 2022 debut here on Jan. 8, winning an allowance/optional claiming event on the turf in a fast 1:41.45 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth.

Other expected Endeavour entrants include 4-year-old filly Lady Speightspeare, who won a Sovereign Award as Canada's Champion 2-Year-Old Filly in 2020 after winning the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine. After being off for almost a year, she returned better than ever last fall, winning the Grade 2 Bessarabian Stakes in a sizzling 1:21.03 for the seven furlongs on Woodbine's all-weather track.

Lady Speightspeare is owned by Charles Fipke and trained by Roger Attfield.

Other intended Endeavour runners are 4-year-old Oyster Box, the third-place finisher in last year's Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs, trained by H. Graham Motion; stakes winner Morning Molly, who finished second in last year's Grade 2 Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs, trained by Tom Proctor; stakes winner Jezebel's Kitten, trained by Christopher Davis; Stunning Princess, from the barn of Danny Gargan; Katama Moonlight, trained by Saffie Joseph, Jr.; and Pythoness, trained by Michael B. Campbell.

Motion won the Endeavour in 2014 with Cloud Scapes and in 2011 with Silver Reunion.

Back to the Tampa Bay Stakes, in which a pair of Grade 3 winners, 6-year-old horse English Bee and 5-year-old horse Shirl's Speight, are among those expected to join Eons and Talk Or Listen in the starting gate.

English Bee, bred and owned by Calumet Farm and trained by Motion, finished third in his most recent start, the Grade 2 Ft. Lauderdale Stakes on Dec. 18 at Gulfstream. As a 3-year-old, English Bee won the Grade 3 New Kent County Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs.

Shirl's Speight's graded score came in 2020 as a 3-year-old in the Grade 3 Marine Stakes at Woodbine. In his most recent effort, he won 1 1/16-mile allowance/optional claiming race here on the turf on Jan. 15. Attfield trains Shirl's Speight for owner Fipke.

Also expected are Carpenters Call, out of the barn of leading Oldsmar trainer Gerald Bennett; Call Curt, trained by Juan Carlos Avila; Fly Like an Eagle, trained by Tom Albertrani; and one or two others, Stanislawzyk said.

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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 36th running of the Tampa Bay Stakes attracting 37 horses and the 23rd 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 42nd 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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Get Smokin Sharp Off Layoff, Wins Tampa Bay Stakes

Making his first start since late November, Mary Abeel Sulllivan Revocable Trust's Get Smokin sat just off the lead for the first six furlongs, took command on the turn for home, then drew off comfortably to win Saturday's Grade 3, $175,000 Tampa Bay Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.

Ridden by Junior Alvarado, the Thomas Bush-trained 4-year-old gelded son of Get Stormy covered 1 1/16 miles on firm turf in 1:40.75. He returned $10 for the win, his third in 12 starts and second graded stakes triumph.

Eons checked in second, three-quarters of a length behind the winner, with a fast closing Admission Office a neck back in third, Talk or Listen fourth and 5-2 favorite Greyes Creek fifth in the field of 12 older runners.

Usually a front-runner, including his last start when fourth in the G1 Hollywood Derby at Del Mar, Get Smokin settled into second when longshot Proven Strategies forged to an early lead. The latter went an opening  quarter mile in :22.75, a half in :46.39 and six furlongs in 1:10.65.

Alvarado sent Get Smokin after the pacesetter into the far turn and the gelding spurted away from the field with a strong move at the top of the stretch. He hit the mile marker in 1:34.44 en route to his final clocking.

“I had to get out of there running,” said Alvarado. “He's a fast horse and he likes to be on the lead, but I knew (Proven Strategies) has a lot of speed too, so it wasn't necessary for me to keep going after him and go head-to-head. So I took a hold and my horse came back to me beautifully and relaxed so well. I knew the whole way around I had plenty of horse under me and by the three-eighths pole, when I put him outside and started picking it up, I had plenty of horse left. Turning for home, I was just a passenger and keeping him happy and he started picking it up on his own without me asking, so I knew I was in good shape.”

“We're thrilled,” Bush said. “We were worried about the speed in there and I knew that one horse (pace-setter Proven Strategies) would be a little bit of a thorn in our side today, but (Get Smokin) was ready today. We were pretty confident. (Junior Alvarado) rode a beauty for sure. Our horse was coming into it great, we gave him a little freshening after California and he has really responded since he got to Florida. He's been in the feed tub and we were really hoping he would run this race and he did. We're probably going to hold off on him and hopefully he will be ready for Keeneland. (Owner Mary Abeel Sullivan) lives in Vero Beach and just watched it on TV and she just called and is very excited. She will be 92 on Monday and is thrilled.”

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