Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Pasco, Gasparilla starting points for local 3-year-olds
Nova Rags is among the projected starters in the Pasco Stakes, one of three stakes to be run Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.
Nova Rags won a maiden-special sprint at Belmont Park in his Oct. 10 career debut prior to finishing fourth as the 5-2 third choice in his only subsequent start, the Grade 3 Nashua on Nov. 8 at Aqueduct. The Union Rags colt has since been regrouped by trainer Bill Mott with six workouts at Payson Park, the latest being a half-mile breeze Saturday in 49.20 seconds.
Nova Rags is one of a handful of 3-yearold colts and geldings confirmed for the Pasco, which will share the Saturday spotlight with the Gasparilla Stakes for 3-yearold fillies. Each is a seven-furlong race with a base purse of $50,000, with another $75,000 available to the winner if he or she is registered with the Florida Sire Stakes ($50,000 bonus) or the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association program ($25,000).
Among the other Pasco probables are Ahimelech, Foreman, The Distractor, and Thealligatorhunter, with perhaps a few more likely. Entries for all Saturday races will be drawn Wednesday.
Cafe Society and Feeling Mischief are among the probable favorites in the Gasparilla, which is shaping up with a slightly larger field than the Pasco. Also expected to run are Adios Trippi, Battle Cry, Charge It All, East Wing, Make a Scene, and Special Princess.
The $50,000 Wayward Lass for older fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles also is projected with a medium-sized lineup.
These will be the first stakes at Tampa since a pair of Florida-bred races were run Dec. 12. The biggest dates of a 2020-21 meet that effectively runs through May 1 are Feb. 6 (Sam F. Davis) and March 6 (Tampa Bay Derby).
Arzak headed to Palm Beach
Arzak could make his next start in the Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes at Gulfstream Park after earning a 74 Beyer Speed Figure in dominating a one-mile turf allowance Saturday at Tampa.
Arzak, by the hot young sire Not This Time, was bought for $575,000 by the Sonata Stable of Marc Tacher last June at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. spring sale of 2-yearolds in training. Trained by Mike Trombetta, the colt began his career last fall in back-to-back maiden sprints, winning over the Woodbine synthetic track after finishing fifth over dirt at Delaware Park in his debut. He then was assimilated into the Trombetta string at Gulfstream in early December.
His 3 1/4-length victory Saturday came despite breaking a bit slowly under Daniel Centeno, who sat chilly before the colt glided to the front with a quarter-mile to go.
“I was surprised he broke a little slow, but I think that helped me,” Centeno told Tampa publicity. “Coming from sprinting to going two turns for the first time, he relaxed pretty well. On the backside, he was dragging me all the way, and when I asked him at the quarter pole he responded really well and finished strong.”
Trombetta said: “He didn’t run well on the dirt, and that’s why we went all the way to Woodbine with him. The big questions today were how far he would go and if he would like the turf, and he sure seemed to. We’ll probably just train him into the Palm Beach,” which goes Feb. 27.
Two pull clear in jockey race
Nearly two months into the five-month meet, the race for leading jockey between
Antonio Gallardo and Samy Camacho has been entertaining, with both posting multiwin days with regularity and surging well ahead of their fellow riders.
Through Sunday, Camacho leads by a 33-32 count, with Centeno next in the standings with 20 wins. Centeno, for his part, hit the career 3,000-win milestone Jan. 2.
◗ Lacking so much as one allowance, a nine-race Wednesday card kicks off another four-day race week at Tampa when it gets under way at 12:42 p.m. Eastern. Cloudy skies and a high of 61 are in the forecast.
◗ Tampa’s version of the 20-cent jackpot wager, the Ultimate 6, had its pool emptied Saturday when one savvy bettor hit for $113,641. The winners’ odds in the six-race sequence (5-10) were 7-1, 2-1, 4-1, 7-1, 7-1, and 9-2. The jackpot began anew Sunday, with $1,680 being on offer Wednesday (races 4-9).
◗ Monica McGoey has additional reason to be glad that 2020 is in the rearview mirror. The young trainer has won with four of her five starters at Tampa in 2021, with her winners being Papa Joel, Classy of Course, Grimgrinnin’ Ghost, and Clarist.
◗ Bill Chenvert and Greg Lewis both earned seats in the National Horseplayers Championship in Las Vegas as the one-two finishers in the High Rollers handicapping contest conducted Saturday by Tampa. Chenvert earned $17,000, and Lewis got $6,800.