FESTIVAL DAY 43 NOMINATIONS RELEASED; BUSH RIDES TO VICTORY

By Mike Henry —-

OLDSMAR, FL. – Brad Cox, Todd Pletcher and Bill Mott, the trainers of three of the last six Kentucky Derby winners, have combined to nominate 24 3-year-old Thoroughbreds to the 43rd running of the Grade III, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on Saturday, March 11 at Tampa Bay Downs.

The mile-and-a-sixteenth contest on the main dirt track, which has produced two winners of the Kentucky Derby – winner Street Sense in 2007 and third-place finisher Super Saver in 2010 – has attracted 55 nominations. The race’s allure, in addition to the rich purse, is the availability of 100 “Road to the Kentucky Derby” qualifying points for the 149th running of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve on May 6 at Churchill Downs.

The winner of the Lambholm South Tampa Bay earns 50 points toward qualifying for a position in the Run for the Roses starting gate.

The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby is the main course on a Festival Day 43 menu that includes four other stakes, headed by the 25th running of the Grade II, $225,000 Hillsborough Stakes, a mile-and-an-eighth challenge for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward on the Oldsmar turf course. Previous winners of the Hillsborough include Breeders’ Cup champions Dreaming of Anna in 2008, Zagora in 2012, Stephanie’s Kitten in 2015 and Tepin in 2016.

There are 26 fillies and mares nominated to the Hillsborough. Seven are trained by Chad Brown, who has sent out the winner of the race five times and three times in the last five years, including last year’s running with Bleecker Street.

The 40th running of the Grade III, $200,000 Florida Oaks, for 3-year-old fillies at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the grass, has drawn 37 nominations. Four are from the barn of Brown, and if he enters, he will be bidding for his third consecutive victory in the race and fourth overall.

Before being switched to the dirt from the main track in 2011, the Florida Oaks produced two winners of the Longines Kentucky Oaks run the day before the Kentucky Derby: Luv Me Luv Me Not in 1992 and Secret Status in 2000.

The fourth graded stakes on the Festival Day 43 card is the 32nd edition of the Grade III, $100,000 Michelob Ultra Challenger Stakes for horses 4-years-old-and-upward racing a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the main track. The 24 nominees include last year’s Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby and Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes winner Classic Causeway, since then a Grade I winner for trainer Ken McPeek.

The fifth stakes on the card is the 17th running of the $75,000 Columbia Stakes, a 1-mile event on the turf for 3-year-olds. There are 42 nominated. Pletcher, who has won the race twice, has six nominees, with Kelsey Danner nominating four and Arnaud Delacour nominating three.

Christophe Clement, who has won the race three times, including last year with Heaven Street, has two Columbia nominees.

Total stakes purse money for the Festival Day 43 card is a cool $1-million.

As is always the case this time of year, racing secretaries and stakes coordinators at major tracks have begun a full-court recruiting push to land some of the leading 3-year-olds in training for their Kentucky Derby preps. No fewer than eight Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby nominees are entered in Saturday’s Grade II, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, including 7-5 morning-line favorite Forte, Pletcher’s Eclipse Award Champion 2-Year-Old Colt.

Many of the remaining Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby nominees appear more than qualified to advance to Louisville on the first Saturday in May. The group includes the top three finishers in the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes here on Feb. 11: the winner, Pletcher’s colt Litigate, runner-up Groveland from the barn of Eoin Harty and third-place finisher Classic Car Wash, trained by Mark Casse.

Other nominees with withers genetically designed for floral garlands include Cox’s Angel of Empire, who won the Grade II Risen Star Stakes presented by Lamarque Lincoln and Lamarque Crescent City Ford on Feb. 18 at Fair Grounds; Hit Show, also trained by Cox, who won the Grade III Withers on Feb. 11 at Aqueduct; Pletcher’s impressive Feb. 4 allowance/optional claiming winner at Gulfstream, Tapit Trice; Dubyuhnell, who won the Grade II Remsen Stakes on Dec. 3 at Aqueduct before a dull performance in the Sam F. Davis; Mott’s Classic Legacy, fourth in the Sam F. Davis; and Grade III winner Two Phil’s, trained by Larry Rivelli.

Much more will be learned over the next several days as trainers with Triple Crown aspirations reveal their plans.

Bush finds winner’s circle. Jockey Vernon Bush, who recently was voted the winner of the Randy Romero “Pure Courage” Award, made his first visit to a winner’s circle since Sept. 23 at Belterra Park with a victory in today’s fourth race aboard 3-year-old Florida-bred filly Train Wreck.

The triumph was the 61-year-old Bush’s first at Tampa Bay Downs since Feb. 15, 2014 on Exotic Band.

Bush, who has ridden 3,248 career winners, has overcome a number of racing-related injuries and personal problems to return to competition after not riding from July of 2018 through March of last year. He worked as a jockeys’ room supervisor and an entry-taker in the racing office at Belterra Park in 2019 and 2020.

Bush was ecstatic after his victory on Train Wreck, who posted a 1 3/4-length margin from Shut It Cali in the 6-furlong maiden claiming event. The winner is owned by Anthony Munoz and trained by Donald F. Hunt.

“It feels awesome. You know, it’s awesome that I’m still able to do it,” Bush said. “I’m living the dream – how’s that? I’m doing something that I have wanted to do since I was 3 years old and I’m still able to do it, and you know it feels good after all the four years of hard work and the desire to want to get back out there.”

Around the oval. Leading jockey Samy Camacho rode three winners today, giving him 23 over the last nine racing days. He has ridden at least one winner on 12 consecutive programs.

Camacho scored in the second race on the turf on Never Explain, a 5-year-old horse owned by Courtlandt Farms and trained by Claude “Shug” McGaughey, III. Camacho added the sixth aboard Thunder Buggy, a 5-year-old mare owned by Benjamin Sanchez and trained by Antonio Machado. The victory was the third in a row for the daughter of Twirling Candy.

Once more, with typical Camacho flair: a victory in the eighth and final race on the turf on Cupids Dream, a 4-year-old Florida-bred filly owned by J. P. G. 2 and Winning Stables and conditioned by leading trainer Gerald Bennett. Cupids Dream was claimed from the race for $16,000 by trainer Richard Sillaman for new owner LBR Racing Stable.

Thoroughbred racing continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:20 p.m. 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.