TRAINERS MOTION, McPEEK AND WILKES TRY TO MAKE NEW MEMORIES

By Mike Henry —-

OLDSMAR, FL. – Trainers H. Graham Motion, Ken McPeek and Ian Wilkes welcomed a brief opportunity to stroll down memory lane this morning.

Each has experienced Tampa Bay Derby success, with Motion capturing it twice: with Equality in 2002 for owner Pin Oak Stable and in 2014 with Ring Weekend for owners St. Elias Stable and West Point Thoroughbreds.

McPeek won the 1999 Tampa Bay Derby with Pineaff, owned by Joyce and Roy Monroe. Wilkes was the assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Carl Nafzger when the latter’s Street Sense outdueled Any Given Saturday in the 2007 Tampa Bay Downs showcase.

Although none of the three have a horse in Saturday’s Grade II, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, they all are represented by stakes runners on the Festival Day 41 Presented by Lambholm South card. Before trying to make new memories, they were glad to relive some via telephone.

“It (the 2002 victory by Equality) was a very important win for us,” Motion recalled. “It came for a client who has been very loyal to me and that I still train for. Pin Oak and (Ring Weekend’s owners) are the kind of operations you only hope to be associated with when you come into the game.”

On Saturday, Motion will vie for his second victory in the Grade III, $200,000 Florida Oaks on the turf with a pair of 3-year-old fillies who are 2-for-2: Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gianni Fittipaldi’s Florida-bred Mia Martina and Gainesway Stable’s Oyster Box.

Julien Leparoux will ride Mia Martina and Junior Alvarado will be on Oyster Box. The mile-and-a-sixteenth Florida Oaks is the 10th race on a 12-race card beginning at 12:17 p.m.

McPeek, best known these days as the trainer of 2020 Preakness winner and Eclipse Award Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Swiss Skydiver, still takes pride in engineering a 1999 Tampa Bay Derby upset of Menifee, who went on to finish second in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness and win two Grade I stakes.

“Is the picture still in the (Clubhouse) elevator?” McPeek said of an artistic depiction of Pineaff’s upset of Menifee, the subsequent Toyota Blue Grass and Haskell Invitational winner. “That was a really good win.”

McPeek is running Forever Boss in the Florida Oaks for owners Stephen Baker, Bob Goodman, David A. Bernsen and Magdalena Racing.

Wilkes waxed nostalgic about the victories here by Street Sense in 2007 and by his 4-year-old Fort Larned in the 2012 Challenger Stakes. Wilkes used Fort Larned’s Challenger triumph as a springboard to a remarkable season that concluded with a victory in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita.

“If Fort Larned got beat in the Challenger, he never would have run in the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Wilkes said. “We would have taken him on a different path.”

Wilkes is running 4-year-old colt Letmeno in the Grade III, $100,000 Michelob Ultra Challenger, a mile-and-a-sixteenth race on the main dirt track. It is the fifth race on the card. Leparoux will be aboard for owners Randall L. Bloch and Six Column Stables, LLC, et al. Wilkes has also entered his 3-year-old colt Private Island in the $75,000 Columbia Stakes at a mile on the grass. Leparoux will ride for Six Column Stables, Randall L. Bloch, John Seiler and Fred Merritt. The Columbia is the seventh race.

Wilkes, who won the 2017 Columbia with Sonic Boom, has also entered 3-year-old colt Seminole Beach in the Street Sense, a $36,000 maiden special weight contest at a mile-and-40-yards carded as the sixth race.

Of course Tampa Bay Downs remembers Street Sense.

Motion won the Florida Oaks with Dynamic Holiday in 2011, the first year the race was contested on the grass. Although Luv Me Luv Me Not (1992) and Secret Status (2000) parlayed Florida Oaks dirt victories into Kentucky Oaks triumphs, track officials believed the race had a brighter future on the turf course, which had opened in 1998.

The Florida Oaks was a Grade III stakes when run on the dirt from 1997-2001 and again from 2008-2010, then surrendered the grade for two years prior to being restored to Grade III status before Tapicat’s 2013 victory.

“I think it has become a very important race on the calendar for 3-year-old fillies to get started in a stakes, and the fact it is a graded race is an extra bonus,” said Motion, who also owns a victory in today’s other turf stakes, the Grade II, $225,000 Hillsborough, with Cloud Scapes in 2014.

McPeek, who finished third in the 2011 Florida Oaks with Niji’s Grand Girl, has talked to Tampa Bay Downs Racing Secretary Allison De Luca about the possibility of switching the Florida Oaks back to the dirt, which he thinks would make it a logical stepping stone for Kentucky Oaks prospects. De Luca mentioned earlier today that the $150,000 Suncoast Stakes, a mile-and-40-yard 3-year-old filly race on the dirt contested this season on Feb. 6, is in fact a “Road to the Kentucky Oaks” points race.

But it’s just fun to talk about.

“As a dirt race, I think it fits well timing-wise with the (Grade I Central Bank) Ashland (at Keeneland) and the (Longines) Kentucky Oaks,” McPeek said. “But as a turf race, it leads into the (Grade II) Appalachian (at Keeneland) and the (Grade II) Edgewood (at Churchill Downs, and I know there are a lot of good south Florida fillies that fit that spot.”

Motion and McPeek agree that the Tampa Bay Downs turf course is kept in pristine condition by a track maintenance crew devoted to keeping it as consistent, safe and impartial as is humanly possible.

“It’s a very appealing surface during the winter because it is as safe and as fair a turf course as you’re going to find,” Motion said. “Look at the quality of maiden turf races at Tampa. They keep it in real good condition, and it is a surface we all appreciate during the winter.”

“It’s a beautiful grass course. I think it is one of the best in the nation,” McPeek said. “They do a great job keeping it lush and green and in great shape.”

Turf or dirt, Wilkes says the main attractions for Tampa Bay Downs trainers are racing surfaces that are kind to horses, enabling conditioners to take their time developing youngsters with stakes potential, with an eye on more lucrative purses later in the year.

“That is the key,” Wilkes said. “With Fort Larned, the Challenger Stakes was the start of a growing dream. He was a naturally fast horse, and when he was right, no one could beat him. His Challenger victory (with Ronnie Allen, Jr., riding) kicked off an unbelievable year. If you have the right horse, you can target those (Tampa Bay Downs stakes) because horses come out of there and run well. You’re not afraid to go on from there to any race or any track.”

Some aspects of Tampa Bay Downs remain unchanged from the end of the previous century, noted McPeek.

“The racing is good, the weather is usually beautiful and the track is safe,” McPeek said. “And it always seems like the fans are having a fun time.”

Around the oval. Hector Diaz, Jr., rode back-to-back winners on today’s card. Diaz won the sixth race with Ahimelech, a 3-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Blazing Meadows Farm and trained by Tim Hamm. Diaz added the seventh race on the turf aboard True Grace, a 4-year-old gelding bred and owned by Mr. and Mrs. Bertram R. Firestone and trained by Arnaud Delacour.

Isaac Castillo also rode two winners. He captured the first race on Whispering Rose, a 4-year-old filly owned and trained by Jose L. Sanchez. Castillo added the eighth race with Big Base, a 6-year-old mare owned and trained by M. Anthony Ferraro.

Big Base was claimed from the race for $6,250 by trainer Jon Arnett for new owner Danny Stafford.

Tampa Bay Downs currently races on a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule. The track is open every day for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.