TAMPA BAY: CARRYOVER POOLS SET TO SPICE UP FRIDAY CARD

By Mike Henry —-

OLDSMAR, FL. – A string of long-shot winners, including back-to-back first-time starters in the seventh (Hoku, $39.20) and eighth (Froshado, $35) races, combined to create some large carryover pools into Friday’s nine-race card.

The carryover for the 50-cent Pick-5, which will begin with the fifth race, is $84,143, with no bettors correctly selecting all five winners of the fifth through ninth races.

A carryover of $30,265 will greet 20-cent Ultimate 6 players Friday who tackle the challenge of picking races four through nine. There is also a carryover of $22,511 and change into the first Super High-5 race, requiring bettors to pick the first five finishers of the race in order.

For the last 12 months, almost, Tampa Bay residents were counting the days until they got to celebrate the holiday season with family and friends.

But having to stoke the fireplace (if they have one) while receiving a steady diet of bad-weather news to go with their cookies and egg nog created an area-wide epidemic of cabin fever.

The longing to get back outside took root today at Tampa Bay Downs, where the combination of bright sunshine, gentle breezes and the 2003 Tampa Bay Downs Calendar Giveaway attracted a crowd of 2,889 for the midweek program.

With a forecast of “more of the same” for the next several days (temperatures are expected to climb into the high 70s, although afternoon thunderstorms are possible Saturday), the track’s management team is hopeful the post-holiday action will gather momentum (like a snowball effect) heading into the meat of the Oldsmar oval’s stakes program.

The track’s next stakes day is Jan. 14, Skyway Festival Day, with three big-money races on the card: the $125,000, 7-furlong Pasco Stakes for 3-year-olds, the $125,000, 7-furlong Gasparilla Stakes for 3-year-old fillies and the $50,000, mile-and-a-sixteenth Wayward Lass Stakes for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward.

Nominations are expected to be released Sunday.

The Pasco Stakes is a prep race for the Grade III, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on Feb. 11, while the Gasparilla is a prep for the $150,000 Suncoast Stakes for 3-year-old fillies at a mile-and-40 yards, also on Feb. 11. The Sam F. Davis and the Suncoast award qualifying points on the “Road to the Kentucky Derby” and the “Road to the Kentucky Oaks,” respectively.

The biggest day of the Oldsmar season, of course, is March 11 (Festival Day), with a million-dollar collection of five stakes, headed by the Grade III, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, a major “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points race.

There is much to look forward to – including Sunday, Jan. 1, when all North American Thoroughbreds celebrate their birthdays for record-keeping purposes.

Carrot cake, anyone?

Around the oval. In today’s featured eighth race, a $32,000, 6-furlong maiden special weight for 2-year-old fillies, Godolphin-owned homebred Froshado outdueled Broken Hearts Bay through the stretch to post a neck victory in her first lifetime start. Froshado is trained by Eoin Harty and was ridden by apprentice Laureano Sosa.

Froshado is by Godolphin’s multiple-Grade I winner Frosted and out of Hall of Famer Ashado, who won the Kentucky Oaks and the Breeders’ Cup Distaff Presented by NexTel in 2004, as well as numerous other major races.

Thoroughbred racing continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:30 p.m. Beginning this week, Tampa Bay Downs moves to a Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday racing 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.