Close calls abound at the racetrack, even when they don’t happen on the track. Consider the case of Candy Quest, the 3-1 morning-line favorite for Saturday’s Grade III, $175,000, Endeavour Stakes, to be run at a distance of a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf at Tampa Bay Downs.
Two summers ago at Saratoga, the then-unraced $225,000 yearling purchase was preparing to launch her career when she was sent to the sidelines by a bizarre accident.
“She ran through the webbing of her stall and stuck a nail in her foot,” recalled trainer Mark Casse. “She missed some time, but she’s been very solid since she started racing.”
The 4-year-old filly, who broke her maiden in her career debut in her lone 2-year-old start on Oct. 3, 2024 at Belmont At The Big A, has crafted a 3-for-9 record with three seconds for Casse and owner Glassman Racing LLC, including a victory last July in the Grade III Ontario Colleen Stakes at Woodbine. She will break from the No. 1 post under jockey Sonny Leon in a field of 11 older fillies and mares.
The Endeavour is the ninth and final race on a “Turf Champions Day” card beginning at 12:25 p.m. Casse will also saddle the morning-line favorite for the Grade III, $175,000 Tampa Bay Stakes, Live Oak Plantation’s 7-year-old gelding Win for the Money, regarded at opening odds of 7-5. Leon will also ride Win for the Money, who won the Grade I, $1.2-million Rogers Woodbine Mile in September of 2024, in a field of eight older horses. Win for the Money is in the No. 6 post.
Casse’s full attention will be devoted to his Oldsmar runners after the postponement earlier this week of the Grade III Southwest Stakes for 3-year-olds at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Arkansas due to extreme weather conditions. The Southwest has been rescheduled for next Friday, Feb. 6, and Casse still plans to start his duo of Strategic Risk and Silent Tactic.
After winning the Ontario Colleen, Candy Quest rallied from last place in the Blackwood Dueling Grounds Oaks Invitational on Sept. 10 at Kentucky Downs, taking a short-lived lead in the stretch before succumbing by a half-length to Fionn. More recently, on Oct. 11 in the Grade I Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes Presented by Dixiana at Keeneland, Candy Quest was fifth, a head behind Fionn and 5 lengths behind the winner, Lush Lips.
Fionn returned from that start to win the Grade III Jockey Club Oaks on Nov. 15 at Aqueduct. Will Candy quest match her?
“Candy Quest has always been very talented and has been training well, but she has to play with the big girls now,” Casse said. “She was able to run all year against 3-year-olds, and now the water gets deeper. But I’d say for the most part she was running against the best 3-year-olds around, so I don’t think it will be a problem.”
Here is the full field for the Endeavour in post position order, followed by horse, jockey, trainer and morning-line odds:
- Candy Quest, Sonny Leon, Mark Casse, 3-1; 2. Dreaming of Abba, Antonio Gallardo, Kathleen O’Connell, 20-1; 3. Scythian, Daniel Centeno, Bill Mott, 15-1; 4. Al Jafara, Samy Camacho, Chad Brown, 9-2; 5. Aussie Girl, Ben Curtis, Will Walden, 7-2; 6. Madame Mischief, David Egan, Jorge Delgado, 15-1; 7. Belle of Rights, Samuel Marin, Claude “Shug” McGaughey, III, 10-1; 8. Charlie’s Wish, Rafael Hernandez, David Fawkes, 15-1; 9. Love You Anyway, Rajiv Maragh, George “Rusty” Arnold, II, 8-1; 10. Starship Impulsive, Jesus Castanon, M. Anthony Ferraro, 20-1; 11. Public Defender, Pablo Morales, Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., 5-1.
In the Tampa Bay Stakes, Win for the Money will be looking for his first victory since the Woodbine Mile, but the majority of his efforts have been encouraging. He finished third in the Grade III Kelson Stakes on July 5 at Saratoga and was third in the Grade III FanDuel Fourstardave Stakes on Aug. 2, also at the Spa.
On Dec. 27 at Gulfstream, he returned from a 3 ½-month layoff to finish second in an allowance/optional claiming race at the Tampa Bay Stakes distance, beaten a half-length by Abrumar, who may have run a career best. “He (Win for the Money) had a troubled trip, and I think he should move forward off that race,” Casse said.
“When he gets the right set-up and gets a good trip, he can play with the big kids. So if he brings his ‘A’ game he should be extremely tough – and I don’t see any reason he shouldn’t.”
Here is the full field for the Tampa Bay Stakes in post position order, followed by horse, jockey, trainer and morning-line odds:
- Simulate, Daniel Centeno, Bill Mott, 6-1; 2. Innately Good, Jose Ferrer, Nik Goodwin, 30-1; 3. Quatrocento, Julien Leparoux, Fausto Gutierrez, 5-2; 4. Discreet Dancer, David Egan, Antonio Sano, 20-1; 5. Spellcast, Cipriano Gil, Tim Hamm, 15-1; 6. Win for the Money, Sonny Leon, Mark Casse, 7-5; 7. Tom’s Magic, Rafael Hernandez, Michael Stidham, 3-1; 8. Britain’s Kitten, Israel Rodriguez, Kevin Rice, 20-1.
Simone is Martin’s Italian Trainer of Month. After winning three races on Jan. 11 for the first time in his career, trainer Michael Simone celebrated by joining a couple of his owners for dinner at a restaurant down the road from Tampa Bay Downs.
During the evening, the 40-year-old Queens, N.Y., product reflected on the influence of his late father Victor, whose career winners included the two-time New York Grade III winner Brushing Up.
You might not guess it by talking to him, but Simone tends to get emotional at such moments. On this particular Sunday, Simone relayed a silent but heartfelt message to his father of the type so many sons grasp too late to voice in person: Yeah, Dad, you were right.
“When he won those races (the 1998 Grey Lag Handicap and the 1999 Stymie Handicap, both at Aqueduct) I was a kid and I probably didn’t give him the credit he deserved,” said Simone, the Martin’s Italian Trainer of the Month who is tied for fourth in the Oldsmar standings with Kathleen O’Connell with 12 winners apiece.
“I was young and green and I remember giving him a lot of stuff about this and that. I respect what he did so much more now that I’m doing it myself,” Simone said. “With his big horse, we went around to races like the Massachusetts Handicap (at Suffolk Downs) and the Pimlico Special, and that was so much fun. I would love to do it again.
“Before a race now,” Simone added, “I always try to look up and ask him to bless me and help me out.”
Although he has had only one stakes entrant himself since he began training in 2007 (Simone left the business in 2012 after his father died, returning in 2020), he has made a mark the last three seasons as a claiming trainer at Tampa Bay Downs. He finished tied for eighth here last season with 16 winners and was tied for 10th two years ago with 15 victories.
With active owners such as Peter Castellanos of Paterpop Racing, John Fanelli, Moshe Mark and Robert Deckert, Jr., Simone has made 13 claims thus far and has claimed 36 horses here since the start of the 2024-25 meet.
Simone’s top runners in his 22-horse stable include owner John Reilly’s 6-year-old gelding Eldest Son, a turf performer who has posted a victory, a second and two thirds since being claimed by the current connections for $16,000 off a Nov. 19 victory here; 8-year-old gelding The Best Distance, claimed by Simone for $10,000 for Paterpop Racing, who followed back-to-back victories with a third-place finish in his first start for Simone; and Elusive d’Oro, a 9-year-old gelding who has won twice at the meet for Simone and owner Deckert.
Although none of the horses in Simone’s barn are stars (Eldest Son did run fourth in the 2023 Federico Tesio Stakes at Laurel as a 3-year-old while trained by Jamie Ness, beaten only two lengths by the winner), claiming races are the backbone of the sport, enabling racetracks such as Tampa Bay Downs to put together nine and 10-race cards throughout the duration of their meets.
When deciding which horses to claim, Simone loves the challenge of picking out runners ready to perform at a consistent level and capable of getting his owners to the winner’s circle (and a nice restaurant such as Martin’s Italian after a victory).
“I have good owners who like to stay active claiming horses,” Simone said. “We try to look for horses that are about to get their (race eligibility) conditions back, because we’re able to run them back at that condition and it’s a little easier on the horse. I like it if they’ve been running consistently and fairly frequently – I usually don’t like to claim horses that have had a long layoff between races.
“There are a lot of different angles to consider – where they’ve been running, the horse’s age, whether or not they have speed. If I can, I like to claim horses that have a different set of (eligibility) conditions than my other horses so we can spread the wealth out between our owners.”
When it comes to getting a new addition to his stable adjusted to new surroundings, Simone knows it is going to be a longer process for certain horses.
“It might take a little time for a new horse to get used to our feed program and the supplements we give them. Not every horse eats the same feed.” Simone said. “We’ll check their overall health, make sure their teeth are good, get them clipped and make sure they are eating up. That’s a big thing with me. Usually a happy horse will eat up, and you can tell by looking at them if they’re content and happy.
“Then their coats start to come around and get shiny, they start to dapple out and they feel good on the racetrack.”
Simone says that as time passes, he becomes more and more grateful to be a participant in racing. He has a good relationship with his owners and his 10 employees, he enjoys all that Tampa Bay Downs and the area have to offer and he believes that if he continues on the same path, he may one day accompany a stakes winner of his own to the promised land.
And although he doubts his mother Phyllis, who died in 2008 (four years before his father), would have initially been happy with his career choice, she would be gratified to see how much enjoyment it has brought him.
“There are times this is a glamorous job and there are times you feel it’s the worst job in the world,” he said, laughing. “It’s such an up-and-down business. You can’t take anything for granted. Success is great, but you always have to crave more. You can’t be satisfied and you have to stay hungry and focused.”
“It’s definitely a job I love.”
And oh, the memories. … like the time in 2005 when Simone and his father teamed up to train a couple of horses for Davy Jones of the rock group The Monkees, and they won at Delaware Park with one of his horses, Indiantown Jones, who paid $46.40.
A story for another day. … and a memory that will endure forever for Michael Simone.
Around the oval. The Ultimate 6 was hit by one bettor who collected $27,375. The wager requires a bettor to be the lone individual to correctly select the winners of the last six races. The winning combination was 8-6-2-6-8-8.
Leading jockey Samuel Marin swept the early daily double. He won the first race on Jokes Up, a 6-year-old mare owned by Amaty Racing Stables and trained by Jose A. Gallegos. Jokes Up was claimed from the race for $5,000 by trainer Lynn Rarick for new owner Matilde Barahona.
Marin added the second with Top Pocket Pick, a 4-year-old Florida-bred filly owned by Elaine Vinson and trained by John Vinson. Top Pocket Pick was claimed for $25,000 by trainer Tony Wilson for new owner Happy Tenth Stable.
Samy Camacho and Sonny Leon also rode two winners. Camacho captured the sixth on Coalminer’s Kitten, a 6-year-old gelding owned by Clinton Bagwandeen and trained by Renaldo Richards. Coalminer’s Kitten was claimed for $5,000 by trainer Michael Simone for new owner AR Racing LLC (Marsh). Camacho added the eighth with Tortuga Island, a 5-year-old mare owned by Juan Arriagada, Nicholas Primpas and Frank Catapano and trained by Arriagada.
Leon won two races on the turf. He took the seventh with Six Fortyfive, a 5-year-old gelding owned and trained by Mike Dini. Leon added the ninth and final with Three Percent, a 4-year-old gelding owned by Pewter Stable and James Politano and trained by Kathleen Demasi.
Tampa Bay Downs will add Thursdays to its racing schedule on Feb. 5 and Feb. 12. The track is open every day for simulcast wagering, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and professional golf instruction and pleasure at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.
