MACHADO SADDLES 3 WINNERS; BENNETT NO. 1 CANADIAN-BORN TRAINER

By Mike Henry —-

OLDSMAR, FL. – When his mother Rosa died from ovarian cancer in the summer of 2019, trainer Antonio Machado considered getting out of the racing business.

The Venezuela-born conditioner had won only 34 races since 2015 while competing mostly in south Florida, and his grief over his mom’s death, combined with a scarcity of quality horses, caused Machado to despair of reaching the same level of success he enjoyed in his homeland.

Although he can’t pinpoint the exact time or reason, he came to realize the best way to honor Rosa Machado’s memory was to stick with the horses as long as he had hopes of turning things around. By the fall of 2019, Machado possessed enough cautious optimism – and enough decent horses – to arrive at Tampa Bay Downs with his resolve restored.

Machado sent out 13 winners in his first full season at the Oldsmar oval, tying for 15th in the standings. He is finishing the current meeting with a rush, with a recent run of success that includes seven maiden victories since March 24.

All those wins earned him the Salt Rock Tavern Trainer of the Month Award.

Machado saddled three winners today and sent out the first two finishers in the seventh race. The hat trick moves him into a tie for ninth place in the standings with 16 winners.

“Antonio is a hard-working person whose main concern is the utmost care of all his horses,” said Pete Garcia, one of his owners. “He is a detail-oriented trainer who works closely with the vets to check any problems that may develop.

“He is starting to get better horses, and we are expecting to finish this season at full steam (before Machado transfers his horses to Delaware Park, which opens for racing May 26),” Garcia said.

The 43-year-old Machado, who learned much from top trainers Julio Ayala and Cesar Cachazo, reached the pinnacle of his profession in his homeland in 2008, capturing the Venezuelan Triple Crown of Racing with El Gran Cesar. At 30 years old the youngest trainer to achieve that feat, Machado also won 18 graded stakes in Venezuela from 2006-2012.

His collection of recent first-time winners includes the promising 3-year-old filly Baby Gundin, owned by Garcia in partnership with Hugo Bracho under their Bra-Gar Stables banner. They are thinking about entering her in the Grade II, $250,000 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes on May 14 at Pimlico in Baltimore.

Today’s parade of winners for Machado started in the fourth race with Hello Rosie Say, a 3-year-old filly owned by Ivan Lewis Martinez and ridden by Isaac Castillo. Machado won the fifth with Hasty Lady, a 5-year-old Florida-bred mare bred and owned by Harry D. Burns and ridden by Ronnie Allen, Jr.

In the seventh race, Castillo rode first-time starter A Cotswold Village, a 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding, to victory for Machado and owner Carly Fleischmann. Machado’s 3-year-old gelding Pompey’s Rule finished second.

Machado has been uplifted by his reception at Tampa Bay Downs. “I love racing here,” he said. “The Racing Secretary (Allison De Luca) has helped me a lot with stalls and everything else, and I feel like Tampa Bay Downs is home.”

He has a ways to go before his profile approaches that of well-known Oldsmar conditioners such as Gerald Bennett, Kathleen O’Connell and Arnaud Delacour; witness the $101.80 win mutuel for his 3-year-old Florida-bred claiming filly Mago On My Mind on March 31. But any accolades he earns take a backseat to the thrill of winning and his desire to prove himself in a new land.

“I want to do well here because I know it would make my mother very proud,” he said.

Bennett No. 1 north of border. Winning multiple races in a single day, and at different racetracks, is nothing new for leading Tampa Bay Downs trainer Gerald Bennett. But today is different: His victories at Tampa Bay Downs and Gulfstream Park make him the No. 1 Canadian-born conditioner in history with 3,975 winners.

An hour after winning the third race here with 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding West Side Warrior, Bennett captured the third race on the turf at Gulfstream with Baby Boomer, a 4-year-old gelding he campaigns under his Winning Stables banner. Samy Camacho rode West Side Warrior and Emisael Jaramillo rode Baby Boomer.

Bennett, a product of Springhill, Nova Scotia who is now 13th on the all-time trainer list, passed the late Frank H. Merrill, Jr., a member of the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame.

Merrill, who was born in 1919 in Brantford, Ontario and died in 1990, led all North American trainers in victories in three different years from 1955-1960.

“We used to claim a lot of horses from each other in the 1970s at Woodbine, Fort Erie and Greenwood,” Bennett, 77, said. “He was the big gun winning a lot of races and I was just getting into the game, and I used to watch where he ran his horses and what he did to be successful.”

While Merrill trained for such top owners as E.P. Taylor, Elizabeth Arden Graham, Liz Whitney and Mrs. Horatio Luro, the major percentage of his victories came in claiming races. He earned the nickname “The Prince of Patch” for his work in turning bad-legged claimers into consistent winners.

The same has been true for Bennett, who has clinched his sixth consecutive Oldsmar training title and seventh overall. He picked up minor stakes winner Beau Genius after his 3-year-old season and trained him to victory in 13 stakes, including the (then)-Grade I Philip H. Iselin in 1990.

Tampa Bay Downs fans with somewhat long memories will recall Bennett claiming 3-year-old gelding Crimson Knight for $16,000 from a turf victory in 2011 and saddling him for a second-place finish in the Grade II Tampa Bay Derby in his next start at odds of 86-1, beaten a neck by Watch Me Go.

Time now for Bennett to find the next mountain to climb.

“Back when I was hot-walking and grooming horses and mucking stalls, I never would have believed I could have gotten close to this many wins,” said Bennett, who trained Standardbreds in Canada before moving to Thoroughbreds. “Working hard to get these kind of accomplishments, knowing people in the sport will know you in some way. … it’s a great thrill for me.”

Around the oval. Samy Camacho rode two winners today, moving into a 96-96 tie with Antonio Gallardo atop the Tampa Bay Downs jockey standings. Camacho won the third race on the aforementioned West Side Warrior for Bennett and owner 5 Aces Racing Stable. He added the ninth and final race on American of Course, a 4-year-old Florida-bred filly racing for breeder-owner Jacks or Better Farm and trainer Kathleen O’Connell.

Racing continues Saturday with a 10-race card beginning at 12:15 p.m. Six racing days remain in the 2020-2021 season, which concludes with the “Fan Appreciation Day” card on Sunday, May 2. There will be free Grandstand admission and parking, and beers, sodas and Nathan’s Hot Dogs will be sold at discounted prices.

The May 2 card will also mark the unofficial conclusion of the Oldsmar oval’s 95th anniversary meeting. The meeting proper ends Wednesday, June 30, which is also the first day of the ninth annual, two-day Summer Festival of Racing. The July 1 Summer Festival card is officially the first day of the 2021-2022 meeting, which is expected to then resume in late November.

Tampa Bay Downs 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.