For many of the track’s employees, horsewomen, horsemen and jockeys, Wednesday’s Opening Day performance at Tampa Bay Downs produced the type of jitters normally associated with a theater premier.
The product being Thoroughbred racing, it would be ridiculous to suggest everything went off without a hitch. But at the end of the day, the collective sigh of relief emanating from the main stage confirmed the 100th anniversary season at the Oldsmar oval is odds-on to be a smash hit.
Tampa Bay Downs presents an encore performance Saturday, with the first of nine races scheduled to begin at 12:33 p.m. The co-feature races are both scheduled for the turf course: the fifth, a $55,500 allowance for fillies and mares at a distance of a mile-and-a-sixteenth, and the ninth, a $56,500 allowance/optional claiming event for horses 3-years-old-and-upward sprinting 5 furlongs.
The weather is expected to be similar to Wednesday, with temperatures nearing the mid-80s and less than a 10-percent chance of rain.
Jose Ferrer and defending jockey champion Samuel Marin each rode two winners Wednesday. Nine different trainers scored victories, with nine-time track champion Gerald Bennett posting a victory, a second and a third from his three starters.
As is always the case when the holiday season nears, the racing schedule takes a little while to get used to. The next racing performance following Saturday’s action comes on Wednesday. In the interim, Tampa Bay Downs will be open Sunday, Monday and Tuesday for simulcasting from other tracks.
From that point, Tampa Bay Downs will conduct racing each Wednesday, Friday and Saturday through Dec. 20 before Sundays are added to the schedule on Dec. 21.
Admission is free every Wednesday.
As a general rule, Tampa Bay Downs is open every day for simulcasting, no-limits action and tournament play in The Silks Poker Room and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility.
The exceptions are Thanksgiving, Nov. 27, and Christmas, Dec. 25, as well as Easter Sunday, April 5, when the track is closed in its entirety.
Officials and staff of Tampa Bay Downs invite Thoroughbred lovers and newcomers alike to share the excitement of the Oldsmar oval’s meet-long centennial celebration, marking the track’s opening on Feb. 18, 1926.
