FERRER HITS 4,800 ON LONGSHOT; EDDIE BAUML WINS “LIVE IT UP CHALLENGE”

By Mike Henry —-

SV Photography
FERRER HITS 4,800 ON LONGSHOT; EDDIE BAUML WINS “LIVE IT UP CHALLENGE”

OLDSMAR, FL. – Jose Ferrer reached another milestone in his remarkable career today, riding career winner No. 4,800 in the fifth race at Tampa Bay Downs.

Ferrer, 60, rallied 6-year-old Florida-bred gelding Sir Saffer through the stretch of the high-level 1-mile claiming event on the turf to post a half-length victory from Lamplighter Jack in a time of 1:34.99. Sir Saffer, who is owned by DiBello Racing and trained by Kathleen O’Connell, paid $22 to win.

Ferrer was joined by family and friends in a joyous winner’s-circle celebration. He is sixth in the current Tampa Bay Downs meet standings with 25 victories.

The Santurce, Puerto Rico product, who has won more than 200 races in a single year three times, has ridden 29 graded-stakes winners, including Stormy Pick in the Grade I Spinaway Stakes in 2000 at Saratoga. Ferrer won the Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby in 2021 aboard Helium and was leading jockey at Monmouth Park in 2018 with 95 winners, including a career-best six on a single card that July.

Those on-track achievements, while impressive, take a backseat to his winning the 2018 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which is decided in voting by one’s fellow jockeys across North America. The award is given to a jockey whose career and personal character reflect positively on racing.

Ferrer credits his wife Steffi and their sons Derek and Joseph for mental and spiritual support and encouragement.

Eddie Bauml is “Live It Up Challenge” king. Eddie Bauml is the first to admit a healthy amount of luck is needed to win a handicapping contest with 1,002 participants. But the “Live It Up Challenge,” which ran from Jan. 18 through Sunday, also requires skill and consistency, two attributes the retired banking Vice President brought to the competition.

It didn’t hurt that Bauml, a 71-year-old Lewes, Del., resident, found himself stimulated by Tampa Bay Downs’s daily variety of race offerings.

“There is a nice blend of races there – dirt, turf, maidens, cheap claimers and graded stakes,” said Bauml, who has been a horse player since 1972 and considers that year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Riva Ridge, his favorite horse. “My forte is the graded stakes, but there is a nice sprinkling there and you have to be good in a lot of areas.”

Luck entered the equation in a big way on Feb. 12 in the fifth race on the turf when he was between the even-money favorite Jamestown and the longest shot in the race, 6-year-old gelding Dial Him Up. At the time he was about $100 behind the leaders, so the long shot was the only sensible play for his contest hopes.

Dial Him Up won and survived both a stewards’ inquiry and an objection, paying $83.60 to win.

Despite being a major horse racing fan, Bauml has never been to Tampa Bay Downs. That will change next winter, as first place in the contest is two seats at the Oldsmar oval’s popular “High Rollers” event. He plans to bring his wife Alice.

Bauml finished the “Live It Up Challenge” with a final bankroll of $543.90, $41.30 ahead of runner-up Tony Ruana. Thad Wayne Karbowsky was third with $414.10 and Bill Zvara was fourth with $405.10.

The second-through-fourth-place finishers each earned one seat at the 2026 High Rollers Contest at Tampa Bay Downs.

Dave Hallforth selected the most winners during the duration of the contest, 22, to claim a $500 prize.

Irad Ortiz, Jr., is Guild Jockey of the Week. Grade III Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby-winning jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., was voted the Jockeys’ Guild Jockey of the Week, largely on the strength of his performance aboard Owen Almighty on Saturday in the Oldsmar oval’s $400,000-guaranteed showcase event.

Ortiz, who won the 2022 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on Classic Causeway, captured eight races for the week of March 3-9. The five-time Eclipse Award Champion also won Saturday’s sixth race, a 7-furlong maiden special weight race, on the impressive-looking first-time starter Accelerize, a 3-year-old colt owned by Spendthrift Farm and Repole Stable and trained by Anthony J. Sciametta, Jr.

Other nominees for the Jockeys’ Guild Jockey of the Week Award included Juan Hernandez, who won the Grade I B. Wayne Hughes Beholder Mile Stakes presented by FanDuel TV at Santa Anita on Cavalieri; Brian Hernandez, Jr., who captured the Grade II Azeri Stakes at Oaklawn Park on 2024 Horse of the Year Thorpedo Anna; Flavien Prat, whose three stakes victories last week include the Grade II Hillsborough Stakes with Saffron Moon and the Columbia Stakes with Zulu Kingdom at Tampa Bay Downs; and Marcelino Pedroza, Jr., who won a pair of stakes races at Fair Grounds.

Around the oval. Four-time Tampa Bay Downs jockey champion Ronnie Allen, Jr., rode back-to-back winners today. Allen won the second race on Laughintothebank, a 5-year-old mare owned by ABE Racing and trained by Lynn Rarick. Allen added the third race with Going Up, a stakes-winning 4-year-old gelding owned by Tammy and Robert G. Klimasewski and trained by Ron G. Potts.

Thoroughbred racing continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:40 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs races Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and is open every day except April 20, Easter, 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.