MARCH 28 FLORIDA CUP DAY ATTRACTS 127 NOMINATIONS

By Mike Henry —-

OLDSMAR, FL. – The Sunshine State’s rich tradition of producing, raising and racing champion Thoroughbreds will be celebrated Sunday, March 28 at Tampa Bay Downs with the 18th edition of Florida Cup Day, featuring six $110,000-guaranteed stakes for registered Florida-breds.

Originated in 2003, the Florida Cup was cancelled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its return to the Oldsmar track calendar generated 127 nominations (pending late mail), with 11 horses nominated for two races and another, this season’s Gasparilla Stakes dead-heat winner Special Princess, nominated for three races.

Being nominated is the first step toward competing in the event, with entries to be taken on Thursday, March 25.

Three races will be contested on the main dirt track and three on the turf course. Florida Cup tickets are being sold on the track website, www.tampabaydowns.com , and at the Customer Service booth on the first floor of the Grandstand on racing days.

General admission tickets are $10, plus a service fee if purchased online. Picnic Area tables are also available for $50, which covers the admission cost for six fans.

Trainer Mark Casse, who won the recent Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby with Helium, has nominated two horses for the 6-furlong NYRABETS Sprint, both homebreds owned by Live Oak Plantation. The conditioner’s 4-year-old Tap It to Win is 2-for-3 at the distance, yet proved versatile enough to finish fifth in last year’s mile-and-an-eighth Belmont Stakes.

He followed up that effort with a second-place finish in the Grade I H. Allen Jerkens Stakes Presented by Runhappy at Saratoga and a third in the Grade II Pat Day Mile Stakes presented by LG and E and KU at Churchill Downs.

The other Live Oak Plantation/Casse nominee to the NYRABETS Sprint is 5-year-old gelding Souper Stonehenge, who finished second in last month’s Pelican Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

Other stick-outs among the 21 NYRABETS Sprint nominees are trainer Michael Maker’s 5-year-old gelding Last Judgment, who won the Grade III Challenger Stakes here on March 6 in his most recent start, and trainer Gerald Bennett’s 4-year-old filly The Goddess Lyssa, victorious here in the Minaret Stakes on Feb. 13.

The other main-track Florida Cup races are the 7-furlong Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomore and the 7-furlong Stonehedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies, both for 3-year-olds.

The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomore has drawn 20 nominations, with multiple-stakes winner Breeze On By, from the barn of trainer Ralph Nicks, and Willy Boi, winner of the recent Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream, among the group. Also nominated is trainer Cheryl Winebaugh’s stakes winner Boca Boy, who finished fourth in the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes and was the pace-setter to the far turn in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby before tiring.

The Stonehedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies drew 25 nominations. Included are trainer Peter Walder’s Adios Trippi, who dead-heated with Special Princess in the Gasparilla; Special Princess, trained by Walter Woodard; and the improving Fan Fan, now 2-for-3 for trainer Kathleen O’Connell.

Tampa Bay Downs’s popular turf course has helped to attract 61 nominations for three Florida Cup races, headed by the mile-and-a-sixteenth Equistaff Sophomore Turf with 22 3-year-olds. In addition to Boca Boy, the list includes trainer Maker’s Chess’s Dream, who won the Grade III Kitten’s Joy Stakes in January at Gulfstream, and trainer Carlos David’s stakes winner Hot Blooded.

The mile-and-a-sixteenth Pleasant Acres Stallions Distaff Turf for fillies and mares 3-years-old-and-upward has attracted 21 nominations. Trainer Christophe Clement has nominated Moyglare Stud Farm’s classy 5-year-old stakes winner Beautiful Lover, who finished second to Starship Jubilee in last year’s Grade II Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.

Also nominated are 6-year-old Crown and Sugar, trainer Darien Rodriguez’s stable queen who won the race in 2019; Mia Martina, a hard-charging fourth in the Grade III Florida Oaks on March 6 for trainer H. Graham Motion; and the Tom Proctor-trained, stakes-winning 5-year-old Summering.

The Grey Goose Turf Classic brings together horses 4-years-old-and-upward to compete at a mile-and-an-eighth on the turf. There are 18 nominated, including Last Judgment and Venezuelan Hug, a 4-year-old colt trained by Danny Gargan who has won three consecutive stakes, including last month’s Grade III Canadian Turf Stakes at Gulfstream, and 7-year-old gelding Salute the Colonel, who won three consecutive stakes in 2019 for trainer Joseph Orseno.

Around the oval. Samy Camacho rode two winners today to reclaim the undisputed lead in the jockeys’ standings from Antonio Gallardo, 76-74. Camacho won the second race on Poseidon’s Passion, a 4-year-old Florida-bred filly owned by Jeanne Martin and trained by James Gulick. Camacho added the ninth, the Cody’s Original Roadhouse Race of the Week on the turf, with Ravir, a 3-year-old filly owned by Green Lantern Stables and trained by Christophe Clement.

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, except for Easter Sunday, April 4, when the track is closed.

Otherwise, 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.

“Hearts Reaching Out” golf tournament is March 22. The 29th annual “Hearts Reaching Out” Golf Tournament, traditionally played on the Monday of Tampa Bay Downs’s Festival Week, has been scheduled for Monday, March 22 at Eagles Golf Club in nearby Odessa.

The event is sponsored by the Race Track Chaplaincy of America–Tampa Bay Downs Division. Proceeds from this year’s tournament will benefit the local chaplaincy’s “Give Us A Lift” initiative to install an electric wheelchair lift leading into the chaplaincy office on the Tampa Bay Downs backside.

In years past, the tournament has been followed by a dinner and charity auction in the Tampa Bay Downs Grandstand. COVID-19 restrictions made such a gathering impractical this year, but plans are underway to bring the event back in 2022 bigger and better than before.

The tournament, which employs a four-person scramble format, begins with a noon shotgun start. The cost is $100 a player, which includes golf, on-course contests, range balls beforehand, a boxed lunch, on-course beverages and a goody bag.

Various sponsorship opportunities are available. The RTCA–Tampa Bay Downs Division is also grateful for monetary donations or hole sponsorships from supporters unable to play in the tournament. Checks may be made payable to Race Track Chaplaincy of America and mailed to RTCA/Tampa Bay Downs, Post Office Box 2211, Oldsmar, FL 34677.

For details, call Chaplain Pete Crisswell at (304)-433-6808 or RTCA–Tampa Bay Downs Division President Sharyn Wasiluk at (813)-494-1870.