OUR SHOT APPEARS TURF DASH STANDOUT; BENNETT IS TRAINER OF MONTH

By Mike Henry —-

OUR SHOT APPEARS TURF DASH STANDOUT; BENNETT IS TRAINER OF MONTH

OLDSMAR, FL. – Turf Dash Stakes favorite Our Shot finished his 5-year-old season on a high note, winning the Grade II Woodford Stakes Presented by FanDuel on Oct. 5 at Keeneland sprinting 5 ½ furlongs on the turf.

The way he has been training at Tampa Bay Downs since late December, the gelding’s part-owner and trainer, John P. Terranova, II, thinks he has the potential to reach loftier heights this season.

“We feel really good about him. This is the race we’ve been pointing for to get his season started, and he’s been training excellent and coming into it in great shape,” Terranova said of Saturday’s co-feature.

Our Shot, the 8-5 morning-line choice in what is expected to be a 12-horse field, will break from the No. 8 post in the $125,000, 5-furlong Turf Dash for horses 4-years-old-and-upward on the Tampa Bay Downs grass course. Irad Ortiz, Jr., will ride Our Shot for Terranova and fellow owners Gatsas Stables and Steven Schoenfeld.

The Turf Dash is the 10th and final race on a card beginning at 12:28 p.m. Saturday’s other stakes race is the $125,000, 5-furlong Lightning City Stakes for older fillies and mares, a 5-furlong turf sprint also likely to have a 12-horse field.

The Lightning City morning-line favorite at 2-1 is 5-year-old Risk Threshold, who drew the No. 11 post but will move in at least one spot due to the scratch of Mendys Honey. Owned by Klaravich Stables and trained by Chad Brown, Risk Threshold will be ridden by leading Tampa Bay Downs jockey Samuel Marin.

Our Shot, a Pennsylvania-bred son of Kantharos, was not nominated for last fall’s Breeders’ Cup, so his connections sent him to KESMARC in Kentucky after the Woodford for six weeks of freshening. He has returned with great enthusiasm, recording eight posted main-track workouts at Tampa Bay Downs since Dec. 29, including a 3-furlong breeze on Sunday in 36 4/5 seconds, that coming a week after a sharp 5-furlong move from the starting gate in 1:00 3/5.

“He’s a real solid horse and the (other) owners have done a nice job letting us be patient with him,” Terranova said. “I believe he has developed into a top-tier turf sprinter, and we are excited to get him back to the races. Hopefully this will set him up for bigger races later in the season.”

While Our Shot is 6-for-19 lifetime with four seconds and has lifetime earnings of $570,080, a lot of stuff can happen whenever 12 horses are involved, especially sprinting 5 furlongs on the turf. There is no shortage of rivals capable of springing an upset, including trainer H. Graham Motion’s South African-bred 7-year-old gelding Isivunguvungu, who won the Da Hoss Stakes at Colonial Downs in September in his U.S. debut before finishing seventh in the Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint on Nov. 2 at Del Mar.

Isivunguvungu, the 3-1 second-choice, is owned by Hollywood Racing and will be ridden by Samuel Marin from the No. 11 post.

The third choice at 4-1 is 5-year-old Florida-bred horse Souper Quest, owned by his breeder, Live Oak, and trained by Mark Casse. He is 4-for-10 and has finished out of the money only once, but is still seeking that elusive first stakes victory. Antonio Gallardo is the jockey.

Opening at 6-1 is trainer Bill Mott’s 7-year-old ridgling American Monarch, who was supplemented to the race at a cost of $2,000 by his owner, Mike G. Rutherford. Off since July, he will be ridden by Daniel Centeno, Tampa Bay Downs’s six-time riding champion who has won the Turf Dash seven times.

With Ortiz riding, Terranova is confident Our Shot will sit alertly but comfortably behind the early pace before launching a decisive kick.

“He’s as ready as he can be. It depends how he jumps out of the gate, then hopefully Irad can negotiate a smooth trip,” Terranova said.

On paper, the Lightning City Stakes looks even more wide-open than the Turf Dash. The 5-year-old Ireland-bred Risk Threshold is lightly raced, with two victories, a second and two thirds from six starts. She finished third in the 6-furlong Autumn Days Stakes on Nov. 8 on Aqueduct’s outer turf course after leading in the stretch.

The second morning-line choice at 3-1 is 6-year-old Florida-bred mare Sol Hope, a supplemental entry for owner C2 Racing Stable and trainer Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. She is 6-for-19, but this is her first try in stakes company. Ortiz is the jockey aboard Sol Hope, who will break from the No. 1 post.

The scratch of Mendys Hope gives trainer Victor Barboza, Jr., two entries in the Lightning City, with longshot Sara Mia, his 7-year-old mare, drawing in off the also-eligible list to join Florida-bred 4-year-old Florida-bred filly Great Venezuela, who will move in to the No. 8 post. The latter-named is owned by breeder Orlyana Farm and will be ridden by Leonel Reyes.

Great Venezuela, who is 6-for-9 lifetime with two seconds and a third, has never raced nor worked officially outside Gulfstream Park, but Barboza does not expect that fact to hinder her chances.

“The turf track at Tampa is very good, so I think that won’t be a problem. She is very good right now and the distance for her is perfect,” Barboza said. “She won four races in a row last year, and they were all 5 or 5 ½ furlongs. She is a very fast filly and I think she is positioned nice.”

Sara Mia will be ridden by Sonny Leon.

Another contender is owner Ironhorse Racing Stable and trainer Joseph Orseno’s 5-year-old Florida-bred mare Beauty of the Sea, a turf sprint stakes winner twice at Monmouth Park and once at Colonial Downs. Rajiv Maragh is the jockey.

Bennett is Mother’s Trainer of the Month. Gerald Bennett knows catching Kathleen O’Connell in the Tampa Bay Downs trainer standings will be a difficult task. But a recent run of success that has moved him one victory out of second place is stoking the nine-time Oldsmar champion’s competitive fire.

“We didn’t really have the stock to start out the meet, and it seemed like anything we put in that looked halfway decent was getting claimed off us,” said Bennett, who has won six races with eight seconds in February en route to earning the Mother’s Restaurant Trainer of the Month Award.

“If I can win one or two a day. … she (O’Connell) has to be running out of conditions with some of her horses, and some of the ‘heavy heads’ (big-name trainers) will be leaving next month to go up north. So if I can get enough horses in the right spots, let’s see what happens.”

O’Connell, the defending champion and a three-time winner of the title, has 28 victories through today, eight more than runner-up Juan Arriagada and nine more than Mike Dini. Bennett is fourth with 17.

As almost every horseman, horsewoman and track employee knows, Bennett, who turns 81 on March 12, has had a challenging season. He is battling cancer in his colon, liver and a lung and is scheduled to undergo a CAT scan Tuesday. Depending on the results, it is likely he would then resume chemotherapy treatments.

Yet through it all – except for a period when he was hospitalized last summer for surgery to remove four benign tumors from his colon – he has stayed with it.

Training Thoroughbreds has been his passion, profession and identity for almost the past half-century. His wife Mary has suggested it might be time to consider retirement, but it’s a prospect that leaves Bennett grasping.

“I wake up every day at 4 a.m. I don’t know if I can wake up and just sit around,” he said.

The conditioner is taking a shot in today’s Turf Dash Stakes with Rouki, a Florida-bred 4-year-old gelding owned by Tropic Lightning Racing. Samy Camacho is the jockey. Rouki is 2-for-3 at the meet and posted an impressive 6-furlong main-track victory on Feb. 2 in an allowance/optional claiming race in a time of 1:09.20, .53 seconds off It’s Me Mom’s track record.

Bennett is unsure of the next step for his stable star Naughty Rascal. After finishing second in the Inaugural Stakes and winning the Pasco Stakes, both one-turn races, the Florida-bred 3-year-old colt finished sixth in the mile-and-a-sixteenth Sam F. Davis Stakes after briefly challenging 1-2 finishers John Hancock and Owen Almighty on the turn for home.

Bennett could opt for the Grade III, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on March 8, which is also a mile-and-a-sixteenth, seeking to win that race for the first time, or he could try the $125,000 Columbia Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on the turf that same day.

Naughty Rascal won the 1-mile Armed Forces Stakes on the turf on Nov. 2 at Gulfstream. Bennett plans to work him next week before making a decision.

Around the oval. Today’s late 50-cent Pick 5 paid $35,000.50 to two ticket-holders. The winning combination was 7-9-12-11-8.

Trainer Mike Dini sent out two long-shot winners on today’s card. He won the third race with Asaasy, a 15-1 shot ridden by Sara Hess. Dini also owns the 4-year-old gelding. The conditioner added the fifth race with 3-year-old filly Dyna Soar, a 19-1 shot owned by Ballybrit Stable and ridden by Daniel Centeno.

Juan Arriagada also saddled two winners. He won the sixth race with Moretastic, a 4-year-old filly he owns in partnership with Steve Hassig. Ademar Santos was the jockey. Arriagada added the eighth as owner-trainer with Jabran, a 4-year-old colt ridden by Israel Rodriguez.

Samuel Marin and Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr., each rode two winners. Marin swept the early daily double, scoring in the first race on 4-year-old filly Once an Eagle for owner Taste of Victory Stables and trainer Gregg Sacco. Marin added the second aboard Vigano, a 6-year-old gelding owned by Messarosa and trained by Nick Zito.

Diaz won the third race fourth race on Bryce Canyon, a 7-year-old gelding owned by Reinaldo Ruiz and trained by Reynaldo Yanez. Diaz added the seventh on the turf with 17-1 shot Peace Cloud, a 3-year-old gelding owned by Patricia Pavlish and trained by Tim Hamm.

Tampa Bay Downs races each Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday and 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.