Mention any resident in Gerald Bennett’s 48-horse barn and he’ll provide an instant update on its status and when and where it is likely to show up next in a race.
That’s part of any Thoroughbred trainer’s job, but Bennett discusses each horse with a level of enthusiasm equal to a newcomer to the profession. There is always a “feel-good” vibe inside the conditioner’s Tampa Bay Downs shed row, and Bennett appreciates his employees for keeping the horses’ living quarters clean and inviting.
Winning does a lot to help, and in that regard Bennett has begun the 2025-26 meet as he has so many others: by vaulting to the top of the trainer standings. With four winners and four seconds from 16 starters through Wednesday, Bennett is the Martin’s Italian Trainer of the Month.
The 81-year-old Springhill, Nova Scotia product is quick to spread around the credit for the barn’s success to his longtime assistant Juan Cacho Castro and the stable crew. “With horses, you’re going to have things go wrong. It’s part of nature,” Bennett said. “You have to stay on top of everything, and I have a good group of grooms and hotwalkers who work well with each other.”
On Nov. 28, Bennett sent out 5-1 shot El Principito, a 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding, and 11-1 Life Is Precious to finish 1-2 in a $51,900 allowance/optional claiming 6-furlong sprint. Both horses are owned by Bennett’s Winning Stables in partnership with Todd R. Bittiger. The $2 exacta paid $97.80, and the outcome left a lot of bettors mumbling to themselves for ignoring Bennett’s penchant for bringing horses back fit and ready after a layoff (El Principito had last raced Aug. 24).
Another impressive victory came on the Nov. 19 Opening Day card, with 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding Secret Empire, also owned by Winning Stables, posting a victory in a 6-furlong allowance/optional claimer.
“The horses are ready. We gave a lot of them time and they are fresh,” Bennett said. “We cut (gelded) El Principito after his last start and he’s been training well since then. We’ve got some others who are close to being ready, and it will depend on whether they fit the conditions of the races that come up” (when they start).
One horse nearing a return is 3-year-old Florida-bred Naughty Rascal, owned by Mr Pug LLC and J.P.G. 2 LLC. A three-time stakes winner, Naughty Rascal last raced on March 8, finishing sixth in the Grade III Tampa Bay Derby.
“He had surgery to remove a chip in his right knee, and then he had trouble with a foot abscess that took time,” Bennett said. “He worked real good out of the gate (Wednesday), and I think he’s one or two works away from racing. Horses he was beating have gone on to win, and we’d like to bring him back and have him say ‘I’m back!’
“I’ve got some other promising runners coming in soon,” he added.
The rhythms of a new Oldsmar season are sweet music to Bennett, who posted 13 winners at Gulfstream after the 2024-25 Tampa Bay Downs meet. He has won nine training titles here, tied with Jamie Ness for the most in track history.
Bennett won eight in a row from 2015-16 through 2022-23, finishing second two years ago to Kathleen O’Connell and third last season behind O’Connell and Juan Arriagada.
Bennett continues to excel despite encountering a series of health problems. In 2024, he spent more than a week in a hospital after surgery to remove four benign tumors from his colon. His wife Mary, along with Castro and the employees, ran the stable. Bennett has undergone chemotherapy treatments for more than a year, and he had surgery in late August to remove cancer cells from his bladder and prostate.
More appointments and procedures are scheduled, but whenever possible Bennett makes sure the horses come first. “You have to keep a good attitude. I get up every day at 4 or 4:30 and come to work, eat the right foods and stay positive,” he said.
Believe this: In his 50th year on a North American Thoroughbred track, there is another good horse coming right around the corner, and Bennett feels blessed to be there to greet that arrival.
“I thank God and the doctors for helping me keep this cancer at bay,” he said. “I tell Him every night and every morning. I have faith in what He can do to keep me going.
“I believe in what He can do for you, and that keeps me in the strongest state of mind.”
Solitude Dude, My Miss Mo favored. Solitude Dude and My Miss Mo, both runaway winners in their previous starts at Gulfstream Park, have been established as the morning-line favorites for Saturday’s 2-year-old stakes at Tampa Bay Downs.
Both the $125,000 Inaugural Stakes for 2-year-olds and the $125,000 Sandpiper Stakes for 2-year-old fillies will be contested at a distance of 6 furlongs.
In the Inaugural, Solitude Dude is regarded at odds of 1-2 against six rivals off a 9 ½-length victory on Nov. 1 at Gulfstream in his lone career start. Owned by Chris Fountoukis and trained by Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., Solitude Dude will be ridden by Edgard Zayas from the outside No. 7 post. The Inaugural is the second race on the card.
The second choice at 5-1 is trainer Eoin Harty’s Super Kick, who will break from the No. 4 post under Jesus Castanon.
The Sandpiper is the ninth race on the card. My Miss Mo, who will break from the No. 5 post under Zayas, is the 2-1 morning-line choice. She was beaten a nose in her career debut on Oct. 3 at Gulfstream, then returned Nov. 9 to break her maiden by 12 lengths. My Miss Mo is owned by Averill Racing, Mathis Stable and Tristan De Meric and trained by Joseph.
The second choice at 5-2 is Sneaky Good, who will break from the outside No. 10 post under Antonio Gallardo. Brad Cox is the trainer.
Post time for the first of 10 races is 12:30 p.m.
Alex’s Lemonade Stand at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday. Financial planning firm Northwestern Mutual-Greater Tampa Bay and its subsidiary, Artistry Wealth Management, will conduct a fund-raising event Saturday on the Grandstand apron for Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), which has raised more than $300-million since 2005 in the fight against childhood cancer.
Fans can get free lemonade while visiting the stand and are encouraged to make donations onsite or by accessing a QR code for ALSF on their smartphone.
Alexandra (Alex) Scott was diagnosed with neuroblastoma in 1996, shortly before her first birthday. She began holding childhood cancer fundraisers by selling lemonade in her front yard by the age of 4, and when she passed away in 2004, she had raised $1-million and inspired thousands with her courage and spirit of hope.
Shortly after Alex’s death at age 8, Thoroughbred owner Chuck Zacney contacted the girl’s parents, Liz and Jay Scott, about continuing Alex’s legacy. Zacney was the managing partner of Cash is King, which owned top 2-year-old Afleet Alex (Zacney had a son named Alex).
The rest is history; the following year, Alex’s Lemonade Stands were set up at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont, sending awareness through the roof. Afleet Alex finished third in the Derby and won the next two legs of the Triple Crown. He managed to keep his feet in the Preakness despite clipping heels with the runner-up, Scrappy T., on the turn for home.
Jockey Jeremy Rose, who was nearly unseated during the incident, said afterward: “An angel kept me safe. There was someone up there who helped us. Little Alex kept me on.”
ALSF is the nation’s largest independent childhood cancer charity.
Sacco colt in Cigar Mile. Crazy Mason, who won the Grade II Carter Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets in April at Aqueduct, is one of seven horses set to compete in Saturday’s Grade II, $500,000 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct. Trained by Oldsmar conditioner Gregg Sacco, Crazy Mason, who will be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr., is 7-2 on the morning line, with Phileas Fogg the 9-5 favorite and Bishops Bay the 2-1 second choice.
Crazy Mason has raced four times at Tampa Bay Downs. He finished second in the 2023 Inaugural Stakes as a 2-year-old, then won an allowance/optional claiming race in his 3-year-old debut. He was unplaced in both the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes and the Grade III Tampa Bay Derby, but has enjoyed an outstanding 4-year-old campaign with the Carter victory, a second in the Grade III Vosburgh Stakes Presented by Army Mule and thirds in the Grade I Forego Stakes and the Grade III True North Stakes.
The full card from Aqueduct will be simulcast at the Oldsmar oval.
Around the oval. The seventh race on the turf produced an extreme rarity, with three horses – Mrs. Katz, Alcohol and Tiki Bar – finishing in a dead-heat for second place, a half-length behind the winner, Singalong Kayla. The outcome generated three separate exacta payoffs (4-1, 4-6, 4-10), six trifecta payoffs (4-1-6, 4-6-1, 4-1-10, 4-10-1, 4-6-10, 4-10-6) and six superfectas (4-1-6-10, 4-1-10-6, 4-6-1-10, 4-6-10-1, 4-10-1-6, 4-10-6-1). No one hit the Super High 5, with a carryover into the eighth race of $1,712.95.
Sara Hess rode Singalong Kayla, a 6-year-old Florida-bred mare owned by The Roola Stables and trained by Tony Wilson.
Leading jockey Samuel Marin rode three winners today. He captured the first race on If I Were You, a 4-year-old gelding owned by John Fanelli and trained by Mike Simone. If I Were You was claimed for $8,000 from the victory by new owner-trainer Juan Arriagada.
Marin next won the fifth on the turf on Stillthinkingofyou, a 3-year-old filly owned by Richard Schibell and trained by Derek Ryan. Marin added the sixth race with Jokes Up, a 5-year-old mare owned by Amaty Racing Stables and trained by Jose Gallegos.
Jokes Up was one of five horses claimed from the sixth race, going to new owner-trainer Victor Carrasco, Jr., for $5,000.
Sonny Leon rode two winners. He took the second race on Betsylicious, a 4-year-old filly owned by GOP Racing Stable and trained by Gerard Ochoa, and added the eighth with Foxy Lady, an 8-year-old Florida-bred mare owned and trained by Pedro R. Garcia.
Tampa Bay Downs is open every day except Christmas, Dec. 25, for simulcasting, 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.
