A field of 10 3-year-olds will vie for “Road to the Kentucky Derby” qualifying points in Saturday’s Grade III, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, the main event on a 12-race Festival Day 44 card at Tampa Bay Downs.
No More Time, the winner of the Oldsmar oval’s Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes on Feb. 10, drew the No. 7 post position for the mile-and-a-sixteenth race on the main dirt track. Owned by Morplay Racing and trained by Jose Francisco D’Angelo, the Iowa-bred colt will be ridden by Javier Castellano.
The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby will be the 11th race on a card scheduled to begin at 11:55 a.m. Admission is $15, with each patron receiving a “Mystery Mutuel Voucher” worth between $5-$1,000.
The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby is one of five stakes, four of them graded, on a 12-race Festival Day card offering $1-million in stakes purse money. The winner will earn 50 qualifying points, more than enough to qualify for the 20-horse field for the May 4 classic at Churchill Downs.
The runner-up earns 25 points, with the next three finishers picking up 15, 10 and 5, respectively. The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby has produced two winners of the Run for the Roses: Street Sense, who won both races in 2007, and Super Saver, who finished third in Oldsmar’s premier race before his Kentucky Derby victory.
The remaining stakes on the Festival Day 44 card include the Grade II, $225,000 Hillsborough Stakes, for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward at a mile-and-an-eighth on the turf course; the Grade III, $200,000 Florida Oaks, for 3-year-old fillies at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf; the Grade III, $100,000 Michelob Ultra Challenger Stakes, for horses 4-and-upward at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the main track; and the $75,000 Columbia Stakes for 3-year-olds at a mile on the turf.
Here is the full field for the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby in post position order, followed by trainer and jockey (morning-line odds have yet to be set):
- Heartened, Todd Pletcher, Jose Ortiz; 2. Everdoit, Kevin Rice, Antonio Gallardo; 3. Give Me Liberty, Robertino Diodoro, Pablo Morales; 4. Good Money, Chad Brown, Irad Ortiz, Jr.; 5. Domestic Product, Chad Brown, Tyler Gaffalione; 6. Catire Vizcaya, Juan Carlos Avila, Marcos Meneses; 7. No More Time, Jose Francisco D’Angelo, Javier Castellano; 8. Crazy Mason, Gregg Sacco, Mychel Sanchez; 9. Grand Mo the First, Victor Barboza, Jr., Samy Camacho; 10. Sturdy, George Weaver, Junior Alvarado.
Saturday’s stakes action kicks off with the sixth race, the Michelob Ultra Challenger Stakes. A talented field of six horses, including defending champion Skippylongstocking, will compete.
Here is the full field in post position order, followed by trainer and jockey:
- Mbagnick, Amador Merei Sanchez, Marcos Meneses; 2. Dynamic One, Todd Pletcher, Irad Ortiz, Jr.; 3. Skippylongstocking, Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., Tyler Gaffalione; 4. Sherlock’s Jewel, Claude “Shug” McGaughey, III, Vincent Cheminaud; 5. Dash Attack, Ken McPeek, Junior Alvarado; 6. Impacto, Gerald Bennett, Jesus Castanon.
The seventh race, the Columbia Stakes, has drawn a field of 10 sophomores. Here they are in post position order, followed by trainer and jockey:
- Quokka, Tom Albertrani, Angel Arroyo; 2. Rose Collector, Julie Stormfelt, Tyler Gaffalione; 3. Move to Gold, Chad Brown, Irad Ortiz, Jr.; 4. Two Ghosts; Barbara Minshall, Antonio Gallardo; 5. Ninja Star, Kevin Rice, to be named; 6. El Principito, Micharl V. Laurato, Gabriel Maldonado; 7; In a Jam, Mark Casse, Jose Ortiz; 8. Full Nelson; Jose Francisco D’Angelo, Samy Camacho; 9. Tok Tok, H. Graham Motion, Jorge Ruiz; 10. Fulmineo, Arnaud Delacour, Junior Alvarado.
The Hillsborough is slated as the ninth race, with trainer Chad Brown appearing to have a strong hand with the uncoupled entry of 6-year-old Fluffy Socks and 5-year-old Marketsegmentation.
Here is the full field in post position order, followed by trainer and jockey:
- Fluffy Socks, Chad Brown, Irad Ortiz, Jr.; 2. Marketsegmentation, Chad Brown, Jose Ortiz; 3. Sparkle Blue, H. Graham Motion, Jorge Ruiz; 4. Aspen Grove, Jack Sisterson, Javier Castellano; 5. Beechnut Trophy, Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., Samy Camacho; 6. Embrace Me, Tom Albertrani, Pablo Morales; 7. Elusive Princess, Arnaud Delacour, Junior Alvarado; 8. Star Fortress, Cherie DeVaux, Tyler Gaffalione.
The Florida Oaks has drawn a full field of 12 sophomore fillies, three trained by dual Hall of Fame conditioner Mark Casse. Here they are in post position order, followed by trainer and jockey:
- Poolside With Slim, George “Rusty” Arnold, II, Jorge Ruiz; 2. A Primera Vista, Kerri Raven, Carol Cedeno; 3. Pharoah’s Wine, Dale Romans, Daniel Centeno; 4. Crevalle d’Oro, Mark Casse, Samy Camacho; 5. Waskesiu, Bill Mott, Junior Alvarado; 6. Austere, Brendan Walsh, Tyler Gaffalione; 7. Style Points, Christophe Clement, Javier Castellano; 8. Destiny Star, Tim Hamm, Angel Arroyo; 9. Dancing N Dixie, Mark Casse, Gabriel Maldonado; 10. Weigh the Risks, Chad Brown, Irad Ortiz, Jr.; 11. Dynamic Pricing, Chad Brown, Jose Ortiz; 12. Witwatersrand, Mark Casse, Antonio Gallardo.
Nicol recognized by colleagues. Tampa Bay Downs Director of Security Deanna Nicol was honored Monday at the Organization of Racing Investigators annual conference with the John F. Wayne Lifetime Member Award, the ORI’s most prestigious honor.
The award recognizes those members who have dedicated their career to the integrity of horse racing and are, or were, actively engaged in the operations of the ORI. The conference was held at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Penn.
“It’s humbling,” Nicol said today after returning to the Oldsmar oval. “I’m very honored because my colleagues are the ones who voted for me. I had no idea until they announced it at the conference.”
Nicol is the first woman to receive the award, which honors the late John F. Wayne, who died shortly after the 2020 conference in Albuquerque and was honored posthumously the following year as the Lifetime Member recipient.
Nicol, an Ontario, Canada product, is in her 11th year as Director of Security for Tampa Bay Downs. She began working in the industry in 1990 at Fort Erie Race Track in Ontario after earning a degree in law and security administration at Niagara College in Ontario.
She was with the Ontario Jockey Club for 17 years, working as a security officer and investigator and working her way up to Senior Manager of Security Operations for Woodbine at Mohawk Racetrack, a harness racing facility.
Nicol has worked on various event teams in Kentucky, California, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, New York, Pennsylvania, Ontario and Nebraska and was part of the Breeders’ Cup investigative team from 2008-2022 (overseen through 2012 by the Thoroughbred Racing Protective Bureau).
“I wanted to get on the Breeders’ Cup team so bad I worked for free my first two or three years, and they finally hired me,” she recalled.
Nicol also performs inspections of Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance facilities for the TAA free of charge. “I donate my pay and expense money back to the TAA – it’s my way of giving back to the industry I’ve been very fortunate to make a living from,” she said.
“Horse racing is one of my passions. I love watching Thoroughbreds compete, and aftercare is very important to me. I want to do everything I possibly can to make sure they are taken care of when they finish their racing careers.
“Everybody in the industry has a choice except these horses. We make their choices for them, and it’s up to us to make sure they are properly taken care of,” she said. “It’s something I’ve always believed in and abided by, and speaking for them is part of our role as investigators and as part of management at Tampa Bay Downs.”
Nicol was previously an ORI chairperson and hosted its annual national conference at Tampa Bay Downs in 2017. She is currently the ORI vice-chairperson.
Tampa Bay Downs again will host the conference in 2026, during the Oldsmar oval’s 100th anniversary season and marking the 30th year of the conference.
The ORI is comprised of professionals responsible for investigations associated with professional horse racing. Members are employed by government, police and regulatory entities as well as private security firms and racetracks.
ORI members actively investigate race-fixing, horse doping, animal abuse, drug abuse, money-laundering, cyber crime, fraud, conspiracy and a host of other infractions of the laws and rules that govern horse racing and pari-mutuel activity.
Around the oval. Apprentice jockey Gabriel Maldonado swept both halves of the early daily double today. They were his 39th and 40th career victories, and as a result of reaching that mark, his weight allowance was reduced from 7 to 5 pounds.
Maldonado won the first race on Star Kanoo, a 4-year-old colt owned by J A G Racing and trained by Robert G. Smith. Maldonado added the second with Tayyara, a 4-year-old Florida-bred filly owned by Enrique Lopez and trained by Alejandro Olais Mendieta.
Samuel Marin also rode two winners. He scored in the fifth on Warwoman, a 5-year-old Florida-bred mare owned by L. Riley Mangum and trained by Patrick McBurney. Marin also won the seventh with Money Song, a 6-year-old gelding owned by GOP Racing Stable and Impact Thoroughbreds and trained by Gerard Ochoa.
Thoroughbred racing continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:20 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs races on a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule and is open every day except Easter Sunday, March 31 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.
