Got Stormy launches campaign in Endeavour

OLDSMAR, Fla. – With national attention focused on the Sam F. Davis as the lone qualifying race this weekend toward the Kentucky Derby, Tampa Bay Downs racing officials tried to ensure an outstanding card for one of its biggest days of the year.

Mission accomplished. Not only does the 12-race program include one allowance and three maiden specials with mostly big fields, but three supporting stakes also will help to round out a terrific day of racing.

Here’s a quick rundown of those other stakes:

Grade 3 Endeavour (race 8)

Mark Casse was laid up sick Thursday morning, but he’d be quick to tell you it’s better him than his latest stable star Got Stormy. A finalist in the female turf division for a 2019 Eclipse Award, Got Stormy figures as a heavy favorite when she makes her 5-year-old debut in the $150,000 Endeavour.

Tyler Gaffalione will be back aboard Got Stormy when she lines up against seven others in a 1 1/16-mile race that starts in the infield turf chute. Got Stormy will be looking to extend her remarkable streak of triple-digit Beyer Speed

Figures to seven races. Two of the races in the streak were Grade 1 victories, and another was a just-miss second behind Uni in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Casse used the Endeavour to start the 2016 season with the great Tepin, who went on to earn nearly $2 million that year. He can only hope this year unfolds as productively for Got Stormy, whose logical year-end goal is a return to the BC Mile in November at Keeneland.

If Got Stormy is to somehow be denied in her comeback following four January works at Casse’s training base in Ocala, Fla., the most likely upsetters are Andina Del Sur, in good form for Tom Albertrani, and Altea, from the powerful Chad Brown barn.

This is the 21st running of the Endeavour.

Suncoast (race 9)

Although the $100,000 Suncoast is the only ungraded stakes among the Saturday foursome at Tampa, it’s still important in this regard – it’s a 17-point qualifier (10-4-2-1) for the May 1 Kentucky Oaks.

Apart from its well-matched field of nine 3-year-old fillies, the mile and 40-yard distance of the 40th Suncoast helps make it a tricky race to handicap. That might be a tad long for the winners of two local sprint preps, Lucrezia (Sandpiper) and Two Sixty (Gasparilla) – but it might not be long enough for a late-striding filly such as Motu, whose connections harbor high hopes for the Oaks after ending 2019 by finishing a close second to Finite in the Grade 2 Golden Rod at Churchill Downs.

“We’re locked and loaded, ready to go,” said Kenny McPeek, trainer of Motu. “This ought to be a good first start to the season.”

Motu got a brief freshening in early December before returning with a steady series of works at Summerfield, the Ocala-area training center that McPeek bought last year. The Paynter filly will have Jose Ortiz up when she breaks from post 4.

Other considerations include Comical, runner-up in the Grade 1 Chandelier at Santa Anita last fall, along with Turtle Trax and Embossed.

Grade 3 Tampa Bay (race 10)

This $150,000 race drew a host of established players in the ranks of older turf horses, including Caribou Club, March to the Arch, and Hembree.

Several more up-and-comers in the field of nine make this another tough assignment for horseplayers, with Devamani, Halladay, and Real Story contributing to the muddle.

Caribou Club, down for the winter with trainer Tom Proctor, comes off a just-miss second in the Nov. 9 Artie Schiller at Aqueduct and probably warrants slight favoritism with Ortiz riding from post 4. The Glen Hill Farm homebred won back-to-back turf stakes prior to the Artie Schiller, signaling a return to peak form.

March to the Arch has put forth big efforts at opportune moments for Casse and Gaffalione, winning three stakes from his last eight overall starts. The 5-year-old Live Oak homebred was assigned post 1.

Hembree (post 8, Pablo Morales), who kept elite company last year, has not raced in more than five months but has been working sharply at Gulfstream Park for Mike Maker.

This is the 34th running of the Tampa Bay, which often shapes up as a prep for Grade 1 events such as the Maker’s 46 Mile at Keeneland and the Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill.