O’CONNELL EARNS TRAINER OF MONTH HONOR; MARAGH SCORES FIRST WIN

By Mike Henry —-

O’CONNELL EARNS TRAINER OF MONTH HONOR; MARAGH SCORES FIRST WIN

OLDSMAR, FL. – Kathleen O’Connell knows defending last season’s Tampa Bay Downs training title will be a herculean task.

“It’s never easy to win at Tampa. The turf course is excellent, the dirt track is kind and safe and the competition is intense,” she said. All of which suits her just fine. “Tampa Bay Downs is the place to be in the winter, as far as I’m concerned.”

The challenge of capturing her fourth Oldsmar championship keeps her energized through the inevitable equine health concerns, cold and/or rainy mornings and stable slumps that affect all Thoroughbred operations. “There is nothing like the feeling of winning a race,” said O’Connell, who has known it 2,525 times since 1981. “I’m like a junkie looking for my next win.”

With nine victories thus far at the meet, O’Connell is the track’s Mother’s Restaurant Trainer of the Month. “We’ve started out good. We’ve had a lot of seconds (10), but that’s racing luck. They usually turn into wins” (in subsequent starts), she said.

For roughly 30 percent of her horses, picking out the best spots to compete requires a Gulfstream Park condition book. O’Connell keeps about 18 horses at the Hallandale Beach track, where her horses have won four times since Nov. 29, with the other 40-plus here in Oldsmar.

“We run them where they can shine the most, and that is the name of the game for your owners. It’s a balancing act, for sure. I think my proudest accomplishment is that I’ve been cranking this wheel for a long time,” said O’Connell, who has averaged 82 winners a year since 1999. Her horses have earned more than $2-million in seven different years, with a best of $2,720,264 in 2015.

O’Connell has trained the winners of nine graded-stakes races, including 2011 Grade II Tampa Bay Derby winner Watch Me Go and 2019 Grade III Sam F. Davis winner Well Defined. Watch Me Go, a homebred owned by late longtime client Gilbert G. Campbell, delivered O’Connell to her lone Kentucky Derby.

And in 2015, she came tantalizingly close to Breeders’ Cup glory, saddling 3-year-old filly Lady Shipman for a second-place finish by a neck to Mongolian Saturday in the TwinSpires Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) at Keeneland. That followed a sensational season in which Lady Shipman won six stakes and set two course records.

In March of 2023, O’Connell surpassed Kim Hammond as North America’s all-time wins leader among female trainers when she saddled 3-year-old gelding My Eagle Soars at Tampa Bay Downs for No. 2,386 in her career. O’Connell has since been passed by Linda Rice (2,537), but there is no doubting she’s comfortable where she’s at.

O’Connell said she has nominated owner James Chicklo’s homebred filly Dream Concert, who turns 5 on Jan. 1, to the $100,000, mile-and-a-sixteenth Wayward Lass Stakes for fillies and mares on Jan. 11. Dream Concert finished second in last year’s Wayward Lass.

None of her success is possible, she said, without her crew, headed by longtime assistant Brian Smeak, forewoman Lulu Spalding and foreman Cesar Pionies. “I have a good team. I couldn’t do it without them,” she said.

Christian Maragh scores first victory. Given the fact his father Collin Maragh is a trainer who rode for about 10 years in Jamaica and his brother, Rajiv, is a multiple Grade I-winning jockey who recently returned to the saddle after working as a FOX Sports racing analyst, seeing 21-year-old apprentice Christian Maragh’s name in a racing program hardly qualifies as a surprise.

Except to anyone who knew him a couple of years ago, when he weighed 170 pounds.

“Most people said I wouldn’t do it,” Christian said after earning her first career victory as a jockey in the fourth race on Dundie, a 4-year-old gelding trained by his father. “But I worked out every day and stayed consistent because I want to do this for a very long time.

“It was two years of me practicing and dedicating to my craft, working on my weight and getting everything together and polishing myself up. It just feels so surreal to win a race, knowing where I was to where I am now – my life has changed so much and I’m glad I kept to it.”

The victory came in his ninth race at Tampa Bay Downs, where he has posted two seconds. Breaking from the inside No. 1 post in the 6-furlong contest, Maragh kept Dundie on or near the lead the whole way, holding off a threat from Bar Down Express by ¾-length in 1:09.65.

Dundie, who was owned by Ian Parsard, was claimed from the race for $6,250 by trainer Juan Arriagada for himself and co-owner Steven Deraney.

Collin Maragh made the drive to Oldsmar from south Florida to watch after running a horse Thursday at Gulfstream Park that was ridden by Rajiv.

“Thankfully, my dad had a lot of faith in me. He told me to just ride my race today and do what I thought was best,” Christian said. “He told me don’t give up on him, because he’s a horse you’ll feel doesn’t really want to try, but you keep riding him and he’ll give you more and more and more.

“The horse wanted to win just as much as I did.”

The age-old ritual initiation followed his win, with his fellow jockeys dousing him with buckets of water and a spray hose and spraying shaving cream on his face and hair. At the end, Huber Villa-Gomez delivered the finale – a bucket of freezing water directly on Maragh’s noggin.

Maragh kept smiling throughout. “It (his smile) won’t go away for a long time,” he said.

Around the oval. Drama Chorus turned back the clock in the seventh race, a $54,000, 1-mile allowance/optional claiming event on the turf. Breaking alertly under jockey Alonso Quinonez, the 7-year-old Florida-bred gelding set all the fractions and held on for a 2-length victory from Card Trick in a strong time of 1:34.95.

The victory was the first since April of 2023 for Drama Chorus, who paid $47.60 to win. He is a homebred racing for owner Peter D. Mattson and trained by Tim Padilla. Astute handicappers who remembered his back-to-back victories in the Florida Cup Turf Classic Stakes in 2022 and 2023 at Tampa Bay Downs collected handsomely today.

Samy Camacho won both halves of the late daily double. He won the eighth race on Lastabitlonger, a 2-year-old gelding owned by Chad Stewart and Anthony Lenci and trained by Stewart. Camacho added the ninth and final race on the turf with Foxtrot Harry, a 3-year-old gelding owned by Amaty Racing Stables and trained by Jose A. Gallegos.

Thoroughbred racing continues Saturday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:33 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.