BROWN, MOTION, McGAUGHEY HORSES HEAD TURF CHAMPIONS DAY NOMS

By Mike Henry —-

OLDSMAR, FL. – Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown, who led all North American trainers in turf wins last year with 113, has nominated nine horses for the Oldsmar oval’s pair of Grade III, $175,000 turf stakes headlining the Saturday, Feb. 3 “Turf Champions Day” card.

The 25th running of the Endeavour Stakes, for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward at a distance of a mile-and-a-sixteenth, drew 27 nominations, including six from Brown and seven from H. Graham Motion. Brown has won the Endeavour four times, while Motion has two Endeavour victories to his credit.

The 38th running of the Tampa Bay Stakes In Memory of John Reading, a mile-and-a-sixteenth test for horses 4-years-old-and-upward, attracted 28 nominations, including three apiece from the barns of Brown and Hall of Fame trainer Claude “Shug” McGaughey, III. Brown has never won the Tampa Bay Stakes, while McGaughey has three victories in the race.

John Reading was a two-time leading Tampa Bay Downs trainer who died at 99 in 2015.

Entries for both “Turf Champions Day” races will be taken next Wednesday.

Brown’s nominees for the Endeavour include career millionaire Fluffy Socks, a 6-year-old mare owned by Head of Plains Partners, and 5-year-old mare Consumer Spending, a three-time graded-stakes winner owned by Klaravich Stables. Motion’s Endeavour nominations include RyZan Sun Racing and Madaket Stables’ 4-year-old Mission of Joy, who won last year’s Grade III Florida Oaks here, and Grade III winner Sparkle Blue, a 5-year-old owned by Augustin Stable and Catherine Parke.

Tampa Bay Downs trainer Arnaud Delacour has nominated 4-year-old filly Opus Forty Two, who won the Wayward Lass Stakes here on dirt on Jan. 13. Delacour won the Wayward Lass and the Endeavour in 2020 with Jehozacat.

Fluffy Socks and Mission of Joy are entered in Saturday’s TAA Pegasus World Cup Filly and Mare Turf Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

McGaughey, who earned his first Endeavour Stakes trophy last year with Phipps Stable’s Surprisingly, won the Tampa Bay Stakes three times from 2016-2019, including twice with Inspector Lynley.

His nominees for this year’s Tampa Bay Stakes include West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing’s unbeaten 4-year-old Integration, a Grade II and Grade III winner from three starts; and Grade III winners Never Explain, a 6-year-old owned by Courtlandt Farms, and Smokin’ T, a 5-year-old owned by DATTT Stable.

Another nominee to watch is trainer William E. Morey’s 6-year-old Winfromwithin, who finished second in last year’s Tampa Bay Stakes to stakes and course-record-setting Emmanuel.

Integration is entered in Saturday’s 1/ST BET Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational Stakes at Gulfstream.

Around the oval. Charlie Marquez, who turns 21 Thursday, rode two winners today, both at a mile on the turf. He won the fifth race, a starter allowance, on Journeyman, an 8-year-old gelding owned by Angela Rutledge and Michael W. Wright, Jr., and trained by the latter’s father, Michael W. Wright.

Marquez added the seventh race for maiden claiming horses on 20-1 shot The Big Calico, a 5-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Manuel H. Gonzalez and trained by Nestor Cascallares.

Samuel Marin also rode two winners. He won the fourth race on Nice Baby, a 4-year-old Florida-bred filly owned by Sabal Racing Stable and Emerald Spring Stable and trained by Darien Rodriguez. Marin added the ninth and final race on the turf on Ready to Fly, a 6-year-old gelding owned by ABL Stable, Dominic Bossone and William Oberdorff and trained by Patrick McBurney.

Thoroughbred racing at Tampa Bay Downs continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:34 p.m. The co-feature races are the seventh, a $53,000, 1-mile maiden special weight turf affair for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward, and the eighth, a $53,000, 7-furlong event on the main track for 3-year-olds.

Tampa Bay Downs races on a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule 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.