Drexel Hill, who finished a determined second to Good Cheer in last year’s Longines Kentucky Oaks, heads a six-horse field for Saturday’s $125,000 Wayward Lass Stakes for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward at Tampa Bay Downs.
The 42nd edition of the Wayward Lass, to be contested at a distance of a mile-and-a-sixteenth, is one of two stakes on Saturday’s 10-race Skyway Festival Day card, with the other the 42nd running of the $125,000, 7-furlong Gasparilla Stakes for 3-year-old fillies. Both races will be run on the main track.
Post time for the first race Saturday is 12:30 p.m.
The $125,000 Pasco Stakes for 3-year-old males drew an insufficient number of entries to be run Saturday as originally scheduled and has been “brought back” as an extra race on the overnight sheet by the track’s racing office in an effort to attract enough horses to run it on Sunday or another future date.
Drexel Hill, who has earned more than $500,000 in her nine-race career, is owned by Legion Racing and trained by D. Whitworth Beckman. She will be ridden by Ben Curtis. Drexel Hill followed her Kentucky Oaks performance by finishing second in the Grade II Mother Goose Stakes on Nov. 8 at Aqueduct.
Trainer Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., has entered three fillies in the Wayward Lass, the most accomplished being 4-year-old Andrea, a multiple-stakes winner who finished third last summer in the Grade II Charles Town Oaks.
Another Joseph entry, 4-year-old Early On, finished second by a nose in the Grade III Gazelle Stakes at Aqueduct, earning her a trip to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Oaks, in which she finished eighth.
Bettors will also take a close look at trainer Michelle Hemingway’s 5-year-old mare Runaway Diva, who was the runner-up on Sept. 28 in the Grade III Delaware Handicap.
The Wayward Lass is the seventh race on Saturday’s card.
Meanwhile, six promising 3-year-old fillies are well-prepared to begin building on their 2025 foundations Saturday in the 42nd edition of the $125,000, 7-furlong Gasparilla Stakes. The Gasparilla is the sixth race.
Topping the Gasparilla field are a pair of Florida-bred stakes winners in Tessellate and Gerrards Cross. Tessellate, who is trained by for a partnership, won the Juvenile Fillies Sprint Stakes by 13 lengths on Nov. 15 at Gulfstream Park. Tessellate will be ridden by Edgard Zayas.
Gerrards Cross, bred and owned by James Chicklo and trained by Kathleen O’Connell, won the Colleen Stakes on the turf on July 27 at Monmouth Park. Sonny Leon has been named to ride.
Other intriguing Gasparilla entries include Lightscape, an impressive maiden winner here on Dec. 6 who will be making her second career start for breeder-owner Glen Hill Farm and trainer Tom Proctor, and trainer Joseph’s stakes-placed filly Love Like Lucy.
Around the oval. Trainer Kathleen O’Connell continued her red-hot ways, saddling two winners today to give her seven over the last four racing days. O’Connell won the first race with One Violent Affair, a 6-year-old mare she owns in partnership with Dennis Holman. O’Connell added the fourth race with Arrogancy, a 5-year-old gelding owned by Bruce D. Gans and ridden by Sonny Leon.
Samy Camacho and Leon each rode two winners on today’s card. Camacho was aboard Win N Your In in the second race for owners Wendell Yates, Troy Johnson and Maritza Weston and trainer Carlos A. David. Camacho also won the sixth race on Easy Come Easy Go, a 7-year-old mare owned by Paula S. Capestro and trained by Renaldo Richards. Easy Come Easy Go was claimed from the race for $8.000 by new owner-trainer Juan Arriagada.
In addition to winning the fourth race on Arrogancy, Leon captured the seventh race on Six Fortyfive, a 5-year-old gelding owned and trained by Mike Dini.
Thoroughbred racing continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:30 p.m. Tampa Bay Downs races on a Wednesday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday schedule and 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.
