A pair of promising juveniles from major training stables are set to turn 3 on New Year’s Day, the date all North American Thoroughbreds celebrate their “birthdays” for record-keeping purposes.
If Tampa Bay Downs officials and fans get their way, those two Oldsmar stakes winners – Saffie A. Joseph, Jr.-trained colt Solitude Dude and Brad Cox-trained filly Sneaky Good – will return here on Jan. 10 in hopes of getting their sophomore campaigns off to rousing starts.
More on those big races in a minute. On today’s card, a whopping $692,033 was wagered on the late Pick-5 to go with a carryover pool from Saturday of $63,841 for a total of $755,874.
There were 1,035 winning tickets sold on the 5/2/3/12/6 combination, each returning $629.05 to the lucky winners.
Solitude Dude, who set a stakes record of 1:09.07 in the 6-furlong Inaugural Stakes on Dec. 6, heads the list of 28 colts and geldings nominated to the 28th edition of the $125,000, 7-furlong Pasco Stakes on Jan. 10. Sneaky Good, who came from near the back of the pack to win the 6-furlong Sandpiper Stakes, leads a group of 22 fillies nominated to the 42nd running of the $125,000, 7-furlong Gasparilla Stakes.
The third stakes on the Jan. 10 Skyway Festival Day card, the 42nd running of the $125,000, mile-and-a-sixteenth Wayward Lass Stakes for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward, closed Saturday with 18 nominations (including 13 who turn 4 on Thursday, Jan. 1).
Solitude Dude, who performed like a seasoned veteran in the Inaugural to post an 8-length victory from Max Capacity under jockey Edgard Zayas, is 2-for-2 for Joseph and owner Chris Fountoukis. Joseph has also nominated Hammond, whose previous start on Nov. 22 at Gulfstream Park resulted in a victory in the 6 ½-furlong Juvenile Sprint Stakes.
Jose Francisco D’Angelo, who won two Breeders’ Cup races on Nov. 1 at Del Mar, has nominated three colts to the Pasco Stakes. The most accomplished is Half Hollow Stables and ProRacing Stable’s Florida-bred Khozalite, who won the 7-furlong Florida Sire Affirmed Stakes on Oct. 18 at Gulfstream.
Other Pasco nominees of intrigue include trainer Todd Pletcher’s Jackson Hole, a son of Nyquist who broke his maiden at first asking on Dec. 13 at Gulfstream; the Cox-trained duo of Commandment and Confessional, both high-level maiden winners in Kentucky in the fall; Mob, a son of Gun Runner trained by Brian Lynch; Juan Carlos Avila’s impressive Dec. 6 maiden winner Tallmar; and Max Capacity, trained by Richard Sillaman.
Here are the links to the Pasco Stakes nominees and their past performances:
https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SN-TAM-20260110-598341
https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SNPP-TAM-20260110-598341
In addition to Sneaky Good, who is owned by NK Racing and LNJ Foxwoods and was ridden to victory in the Sandpiper by Antonio Gallardo, Cox has nominated On Time Girl, whose 3-for-4 career record includes a victory on Nov. 29 at Churchill Downs in the Fern Creek Stakes.
Joseph has nominated two fillies, with Tessellate getting buzz for her 13-length victory on Nov. 15 in the Juvenile Fillies Sprint at Gulfstream. Oldsmar trainer Maria Bowersock has nominated Ridgie, who improved to 3-for-4 here on Dec. 20 with a victory in an allowance/optional claiming sprint.
If she runs, magic lovers may gravitate to Kadabra, a Pletcher-trainee who broke her maiden last May at Belmont At The Big A and has been working regularly for a return to competition.
Here are the links to the Gasparilla Stakes nominees and their past performances:
https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SN-TAM-20260110-598343
https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SNPP-TAM-20260110-598343
The Wayward Lass Stakes nominations list includes the second and third-place finishers in the 2025 Longines Kentucky Oaks, Drexel Hill and Bless the Broken. Drexel Hill, who is owned by Legion Racing and trained by D. Whitworth Beckman, is a stakes winner who also finished second in the Grade II Mother Goose and has career earnings of $516,520. Bless the Broken, owned by Qatar Racing and trained by Cox (who trained the Kentucky Oaks winner, Good Cheer), is also a stakes winner with earnings of $450,835.
Other accomplished Wayward Lass nominees include current 3-year-old Quietside, a career millionaire and multiple graded-stakes winner trained by John Alexander Ortiz, and multiple stakes-winning 3-year-old filly Take Charge Milady, trained by Ken McPeek.
Here are the links to the Wayward Lass Stakes nominees and their past performances:
https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SN-TAM-20260110-598342
https://www.equibase.com/premium/eqbHorsemenAreaDownloadAction.cfm?sn=SNPP-TAM-20260110-598342
Around the oval. Thoroughbred racing continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:35 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs will be open Thursday, New Year’s 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.
Leading jockey Samuel Marin and Samy Camacho each rode three winners today. Marin captured the first race aboard Hola Hermosa, a 3-year-old Florida-bred filly owned by Louis F. Stevens and James Gulick and trained by Gulick. Hola Hermosa was claimed from the race for $16,000 by trainer Anthony Granitz for a partnership consisting of himself, Scott Henry and Michael W. Herbert.
Marin next won the fifth on the turf on Justin Smiles, a 2-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Lindsay Rousso and David Rousso and trained by Joseph Orseno. Marin scored again in the seventh on the turf on Brooklyn Styles, a 2-year-old colt owned by Dahman and trained by Miguel Clement.
Camacho won the second race on Riding a Dream, a 3-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Kathleen A. Estevez, Nicholas Primpas and Frank Catapano and trained by Juan Arriagada. Camacho scored in the third race on Sebastianthe First, a 4-year-old gelding owned by Carole Star Stables and trained by Jose H. Delgado.
Camacho also won the eighth race on Union Cait, a 2-year-old gelding owned and trained by Joel Campbell.
Arriagada saddled two winners. In addition to Riding a Dream, he added the fourth as owner-trainer with Cyberbeast, a 3-year-old gelding ridden by apprentice jockey Ronaldo Rodriguez. Cyberbeast won by a whopping 18 ¼ lengths.
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.
