Based on the first two days of the 2025-26 Tampa Bay Downs meet, Samuel Marin isn’t going to have a whole lot of spare time this season between races.
Last season’s leading jockey, who won two races from eight mounts on Wednesday’s Opening Day card, competed in all nine races today, winning four. With six victories the first two days, he’s off to the kind of start his agent Mike Moran hoped for.
“He’s in the zone. He’s riding awesome, and it seems like he’s just out in the right spots on the track and gives every horse he’s on a chance to win,” Moran said after the 24-year-old Venezuela product rode four winners today. “His timing is good and it just seems like he’s having fun out there.
“You can just tell he has so much confidence,” Moran added. “And he wants to ride all of the (races). Hey, he’s young. I’m 65 and I’m tired watching him, but he’s doing awesome. We just have to keep him healthy and get him pretty decent horses, and he does the rest.”
Over the first two days of the meet, which resumes Wednesday, Marin has ridden in 17 of the 18 races. The only race he sat out was the second on Opening Day, when his mount Answer the Call was scratched after failing to draw into the field from the also-eligible list.
Marin will travel to Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach on Sunday morning to ride six races and is named on seven horses back in Oldsmar on Wednesday.
“Hopefully my agent keeps me real busy,” Marin said. “I love riding, I’m fit and I want to ride a lot more races. Today was a great day. I thank God for everything, and I’m grateful for all the support I’m getting from everyone here.”
After finishing second in today’s first race, Marin won the second on favorite Top Pocket Pick, a 3-year-old Florida-bred filly who paid $5.20 to win.
He then won the fourth, fifth and sixth races in succession. He captured the fourth on 8-year-old gelding Bear Creek, who paid $11.80; the fifth race on the turf on 3-year-old filly Curlaine, who paid $6.20; and the sixth on Long Gone Sally, a 3-year-old Florida-bred filly who paid $7.40.
Marin’s streak was snapped in the seventh race on the turf when he finished second on 2-year-old filly Mappy, who was passed late by trainer Mark Casse’s juvenile lass Greatest, ridden by Pablo Morales.
Marin will be back to try to continue his winning ways Wednesday.
“It’s always good to ride good horses,” Marin said. “This is an amazing beginning to the meet, and I just say thank you to everyone who has been involved.”
Register for “10 Days of Festivus.” The “10 Days of Festivus Challenge” Handicapping Contest begins Friday, Dec. 5, and runs through Wednesday, Dec. 24. There is no charge to enter, but players must register by 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 5 to be eligible. The winner receives a $1,000 cash prize and the runner-up earns $500.
Each day, players are required to select one of two designated CHALLENGE RACES, with results determined from a mythical $2 win-place-show wager on their pick. Players begin with a free lifeline and have an opportunity throughout the contest to purchase five more. Players lose a lifeline if their choice does not finish first, second or third, or if they fail to make a selection on a contest day.
A full set of rules is available at www.festivuschallenge.com , which is also the place to register. See how your skills stack up against many of the track’s top handicappers.
Around the oval. Thoroughbred racing continues Wednesday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:40 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs races on a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday schedule, with Sundays added to the mix on Dec. 21. The track is closed in its entirety on Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and Christmas, Dec. 25.
Otherwise, Tampa Bay Downs 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.
Officials and staff of Tampa Bay Downs invite Thoroughbred lovers and newcomers alike to share in the excitement of the Oldsmar oval’s meet-long centennial celebration, commemorating the track’s opening on Feb. 18, 1926.
