A pair of familiar names are off to quick starts in the training ranks this season.
Tom Proctor, who trains for Glen Hill Farm, sent out his fourth winner from seven starters in today’s sixth race on the turf as 4-5 favorite Wrigleyville posted a front-running, 3 ¼-length victory from Expecting a Winner. Wrigleyville, a 4-year-old daughter of Into Mischief out of Glen Hill’s multiple-Grade I winner Marketing Mix, toured the 1-mile distance in 1:37.58. She was ridden by leading jockey Samuel Marin.
Proctor, the son of the late training great Willard Proctor, has saddled more than 1,400 winners. He is perhaps best known as the conditioner of One Dreamer, the upset winner of the 1994 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs.
- David Braddy, a two-time leading trainer at Tampa Bay Downs in 1983-84 and 1986-87 (tied with Norm Wismer), is 4-for-6 with one second after Rancho Vista’s runner-up effort to Unicycle in today’s seventh race, a 7-furlong claiming event. Rancho Vista was claimed from today’s outing, as was Braddy’s two-time winner Long Gone Sally on Dec. 12.
Each of Braddy’s winners was owned by Joel W. Sainer. Braddy is closing in on 1,100 career victories.
Marin and Ademar Santos each rode two winners today. In addition to his victory on Wrigleyville, Marin captured the eighth race aboard Blaze of Color, a 4-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by JC Racing Stable and trained by Jose M. Castro.
Santos won the fourth and fifth races back-to-back. He scored in the fourth on Pando, a 5-year-old gelding owned by Happy Tenth Stable and trained by Tony Wilson. Pando was claimed from the victory for $5,000 by owner-trainer Ron G. Potts.
Santos won the fifth with Battle Warrior, a 3-year-old gelding owned by Mellon Patch, Inc., and trained by Michael Campbell.
Service in the Grandstand elevator has been restored, delighting regulars in The Silks Poker Room on the third floor and denizens of the press box even higher. Take it from this passenger: The ride has never been smoother.
Thoroughbred racing continues Friday with a nine-race card beginning at 12:35 p.m. There is a carryover pool of $23,103 into Friday’s Ultimate 6 wager.
There are two turf races on the card. The seventh is a 1-mile maiden claiming race for 2-year-olds and the ninth is a 1-mile maiden claiming contest for fillies and mares 3-years-old-and-upward.
Friday, Dec. 26 is Calendar Day, with the first 5,000 patrons through the gates receiving the 2026 edition free of charge (with paid admission). The theme is the track’s centennial celebration, and a sneak peek reveals the calendar is an artistic triumph, with pictures from the track’s beginning years blending into more recent yet similar photographs. Gates will open at 11 a.m.
Tampa Bay Downs has tweaked its 2025-26 racing calendar, while maintaining a 90-day schedule.
Sunday racing, originally scheduled to begin this week, will get underway Jan. 4. The “lost” dates (Dec. 21 and 28) will be made up on Thursday, Feb. 5 and Thursday, Feb. 12.
Tampa Bay Downs currently races on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. With the exception of Christmas, Dec. 25 when the track will be closed in its entirety, Tampa Bay Downs 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.
