ECLIPSE WINNERS CLASSIC EMPIRE, TEPIN TOP FESTIVAL PREVIEW DAY NOMS

By Mike Henry —-

OLDSMAR, FL. – Eclipse Award winners Classic Empire and Tepin, both trained by Mark Casse, headline a list of 142 Thoroughbreds nominated to the lucrative Festival Preview Day Presented by Lambholm South stakes program on Feb. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs.

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Classic Empire, the Champion 2-Year-Old Colt who capped his 2016 campaign with a victory in the Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Nov. 5 at Santa Anita, tops a stellar collection of 46 3-year-old colts and geldings nominated to the 37th edition of the Grade III, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes, a mile-and-a-sixteenth event on the main dirt surface.

The Sam F. Davis is is part of the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” series, which awards points to the first four finishers toward qualifying for the May 6 Run for the Roses on a 10-4-2-1 basis.

Tepin, Casse’s 6-year-old, two-time Eclipse Award Champion Turf Female, is the standout among 32 older fillies and mares nominated to the 18th running of the Grade III, $150,000 Lambholm South Endeavour Stakes at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf course.

Tepin began her 2016 championship season by winning both the Lambholm South Endeavour and the Grade II, $200,000 Hillsborough Stakes on the Tampa Bay Downs turf.

The track’s third graded stakes on Feb. 11, the 31st edition of the Grade III, $150,000 Tampa Bay Stakes at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf, attracted 33 male nominees ages 4-and-upward. Top trainer Todd Pletcher nominated five horses to the race, including 6-year-old Grade I winner Ectot.
Chad Brown, who won the Eclipse Award as Outstanding Trainer, chipped in with four, including 5-year-old multiple graded-stakes winner March, while Casse nominated three, including Grade I winner World Approval.

Hall of Fame trainers William Mott and Claude “Shug” McGaughey each nominated three horses to the Tampa Bay Stakes.

The fourth stakes on the Festival Preview Day card is the 37th running of the $100,000 Suncoast Stakes for 3-year-old fillies, contested at a distance of a mile-and-40-yards on the main track. Grade I winner Pretty City Dancer, from the barn of Casse, and Grade II winner Daddys Lil Darling, conditioned by Ken McPeek, lead the list of 31 sophomore nominees.

Since 2004, the Sam F. Davis Stakes has produced at least one Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands starter in all but two years. Its list of winners includes such outstanding horses as Bluegrass Cat, Any Given Saturday, General Quarters and last year’s winner, Destin.

The Sam F. Davis is the main prep for the Oldsmar oval’s showcase race, the Grade II, $350,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on Festival Day, March 11.

Also nominated to the Sam F. Davis are the unbeaten, Grade II winner McCraken, from the barn of trainer Ian Wilkes; Gunnevera, a multiple graded-stakes winner trained by Antonio Sano; and Sonic Mule, a multiple-stakes winner for Pletcher.

Pletcher, whose barn always seems to be filled to overflowing with promising 3-year-olds this time of year, has nominated 12 to the Sam F. Davis, a race he has won six times in the last 11 years.

Tepin has already compiled impeccable Hall of Fame credentials, with a 13-for-23 career mark, earnings of $4,437,918 and six Grade I/Group I victories, including the 2015 Breeders’ Cup Mile on turf against males and the 2016 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Other top nominees for the Lambholm South Endeavour include Pletcher’s multiple graded-stakes winning 6-year-old, Sandiva, and his 5-year-old Isabella Sings, a multiple graded-stakes winner who nearly stole last year’s Hillsborough before a whirlwind rally by Tepin.

62-year-old jockey reaches winner’s circle. Equibase credits Sue Martin with riding her first race in 1976, but it actually happened in 1973, at Les Bois Park in Idaho. She notched her first victory the following year at the Coeur d’Alene Turf Club in the Gem State. “That was kind of before computers,” she explains of the records discrepancy.

It was also around the time she married trainer Wayne Martin, and the duo teamed for a huge upset in today’s fourth race when 62-year-old Sue (she’ll be 63 in about a month) rode owner James Hester, Jr.’s 5-year-old mare Blue Haze of Fire to a maiden victory.

It was the first victory in the irons since 2014 for Martin, who only rides a handful these days but did post a second in a Quarter Horse race on Tuesday at the Ocala Training Center.

Blue Haze of Fire paid $53.80 to win in her third start of the meeting, despite moving up in class to the $12,500 claiming level. “I didn’t know how she would like going a mile (and 40 yards), but she’s been training really well,” said Sue, who has seven children, 18 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Sue and Wayne were joined in the winner’s circle by daughter Tasha, son John and a bunch of their friends. Sue noted that the sun finally broke through the clouds at about the precise moment Blue Haze of Fire flashed under the finish line.

A devout woman, she credits her personal relationship with Jesus Christ for enabling her to keep competing. “The Lord keeps putting me together – I’ve broken every bone in my body, I have a titanium leg and I have a plate and screws in my arm,” she said. “I just follow the lead of the Lord and try to be obedient.”

And, she added with a smile, “I don’t want to retire, and I think I have the mount back on Blue (Haze of Fire).”

Top racing journalist Bill Mooney dies. Tampa Bay Downs management and staff add their condolences at the passing Saturday of long-time Thoroughbred racing journalist, historian and two-time Eclipse Award winner William P. “Bill” Mooney. He was 69.

Mooney, who always relished his visits to the Oldsmar oval and enlightened audiences with his vast knowledge and insights, died at his home in Lexington, Ky., after a courageous fight against cancer. True to form, he had asked anyone wishing to observe a moment of silence in his memory instead “have a moment of noise.”

Mooney was a journalist and feature writer for Thoroughbred Record, Thoroughbred Times and BloodHorse. He won his first Eclipse Award in 1985 for a story about Ellis Park in Kentucky and his second in 2007 for a story about champion sprinter Precisionist. He also received the 2012 Walter Haight Award for career excellence from the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association.

Mooney, who also worked as a publicist at Mountaineer Casino, Racetrack & Resort in West Virginia, used a one-finger typing method throughout his career because of the effects of an automobile crash when he was 15. It never kept him from beautifully chronicling the sport he loved and honored with his writing.

Around the oval. Trainer John G. Vinson sent out two winners on today’s card. He captured the first race with his 5-year-old Florida-bred mare Mama Splash, who was ridden by Jesus Castanon. Vinson added the seventh, the Cody’s Original Roadhouse Race of the Week, with 7-year-old Florida-bred gelding Gray Beau, owned by Elaine Vinson and ridden by Leandro Goncalves.

A past Oldsmar riding champion, Goncalves also won the second race aboard 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding Areocentric, bred and owned by Bruno Schickedanz and trained by Julie Robillard.

The combination of trainer Jamie Ness and jockey Edwin Gonzalez swept both halves of the late daily double. They won the eighth race with Mettemarlamelva, a 4-year-old filly owned by the Jagger, Inc., operation of Ness.

Ness and Gonzalez also won the ninth race when 3-year-old Florida-bred filly Elle Va was elevated from second to first upon the disqualification of Mighty Mini for interference. Elle Va is owned by Acclaimed Racing Stable.

Thoroughbred racing at Tampa Bay Downs resumes Wednesday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:25 p.m. The Oldsmar oval conducts racing on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, with Thursdays added to the mix on Feb. 9, 16 and 23.

Tampa Bay Downs 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.