Darien Rodriguez stopped getting on his horses last season because of back issues. It was a big change for the Tampa Bay Downs trainer, who was used to breezing them leading up to a race to gauge their readiness.
But Rodriguez, who began his career 15 years ago at Suffolk Downs in Massachusetts by winning with his first starter, Downinfront, has adjusted smoothly to the difference in his routine.
“I have good riders in the morning, so it’s basically the same,” said the 45-year-old conditioner, who won seven races from 16 starters from March 16 through April 16 to earn the Mother’s Restaurant Trainer of the Month Award. “Believe me, it’s a benefit if you can get on them, but I think I can be just as effective by watching them go and seeing how they do from day to day.
“You have to know every horse individually and see how they move and how they act. You might get one who is a little achy, or they might be doing better than the last time. The main thing is they have to be happy and healthy and doing good. If they aren’t eating or don’t have a good attitude, then you have to make adjustments,” he said.
Rodriguez, who plans to move his stable to Gulfstream Park in south Florida after the Oldsmar meet ends May 4, has climbed into a tie for 12th place with 10 winners in a competitive training environment, winning at a 17-percent clip. Which, for non-math majors, means he was 3-for-42 before his horses started winning.
For someone with a career strike rate of 23.5-percent, that was unfamiliar territory. But Rodriguez, who campaigns a number of horses under his Sabal Racing Stable banner, stayed constant in his approach while knowing there was no timetable for when his results would start turning around.
“Not every year is going to be a good year,” said Rodriguez, a product of Santa Clara, Cuba who arrived stateside in 1996 as a teenager to work for trainer Miguel Feliciano at Thistledown in Ohio. “I had some horses earlier in the meet that were training good, but they didn’t run well enough to win. Then they all seemed to start coming around, and maybe the races were a little easier.
“I kept the same routine (except for the riding part). As long as the horses are feeling good and have a good attitude, I believe eventually (the results) will come around.”
Rodriguez’s stable consists mainly of claiming horses. He plans to add some unraced 2-year-olds to the roster before heading to Gulfstream.
Rodriguez, who has an 8-year-old son, Tihago, has come a long way since working with the horses and cows on his family’s farm in Cuba growing up. He’s trained such Oldsmar fan favorites as Florida-bred colt Tiger Blood, who won the 2017 Pelican Stakes and Florida Cup Sprint back-to-back, and Florida-bred filly Crown and Sugar, who capped a five-race winning streak in 2019 with a victory in the Florida Cup Pleasant Acres Stallions Distaff Turf.
He can’t predict when, or even if, he’ll get another one like those two, knowing such blessings are largely out of his control.
“There are more downs than ups in this sport, but you learn how to deal with it,” Rodriguez said. “I keep doing what I’m doing. If you aren’t winning much but your horses are healthy and sound and they feel good, you just got to keep grinding.”
Owen Almighty to represent Tampa Bay Downs in Run for the Roses. The saga of 3-year-old colt Owen Almighty, who won the Grade III Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby here on March 8, took another turn earlier this week with the announcement he will compete in the Kentucky Derby presented by Woodford Reserve on May 3 at Churchill Downs, rather than the Grade II Pat Day Mile that day as previously planned.
Owen Almighty, who is owned by Flying Dutchmen Breeding and Racing LLC and trained by Brian Lynch, earned 50 “Road to the Kentucky Derby” qualifying points for his Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby victory, more than enough to earn a spot in the 20-horse field. The son of Speightstown, who finished second here on Feb. 8 in the Sam F. Davis Stakes, dead-heated for sixth in the Grade I Toyota Blue Grass on April 8 at Keeneland.
With his jockey in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, Irad Ortiz, Jr., committed to ride Publisher in the Kentucky Derby, Owen Almighty will be ridden by Hall of Fame jockey Javier Castellano, the four-time Eclipse Award Outstanding Jockey who won the 2023 Run for the Roses on Mage. It will be Castellano’s first ride on the horse.
Around the oval. Jockey Jose Ferrer is enjoying an April to remember. He won three races today, giving him 15 victories for the month and uncontested possession of third place in the Oldsmar oval’s meet standings with 45 winners.
Ferrer was 3-for-4 on the day.
The 2018 George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award winner, who turned 61 on March 31, won the third race on the turf on Peaches Point, a 3-year-old filly owned by Robert C. Roffey, Jr., and trained by Chad Stewart. Peaches Point was claimed from the race for $16,000 by trainer Kevin Rice for new owner Gumpster Stable.
Ferrer returned to the winner’s circle after the fourth with Cajun Venom, a 3-year-old Florida-bred colt owned by Deborah K. Dougherty and trained by Gregg Sacco. The rider completed the three-bagger in the sixth on King Miano, a 5-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by DiBello Racing and trained by Kathleen O’Connell.
That was the second victory for O’Connell, who also won the second race with 3-year-old filly Madam Prosecutor, owned by Vina Del Mar Thoroughbreds and ridden by Antonio Gallardo.
King Miano was claimed for $8,000 by trainer Reynaldo Yanez for new owner Frank DeLuca.
Trainer Jon Arnett sent out two winners. He captured the first race with My Fine Aquiline, a 3-year-old filly owned by NBS Stable and ridden by Sonny Leon. Arnett added the eighth with first-time starter Lock and Load, a 3-year-old Florida-bred colt owned by Dee Ellen Cook and ridden by Marcos Meneses.
In today’s ninth race on the turf, Sara Hess rode 6-year-old gelding Mr Crowley to victory, rewarding trainer Heather Harney with her first career triumph. Mr Crowley is an Ontario-bred owned by Kick Start Farm.
Plenty of Saturday excitement planned. A nine-race card highlighted by four races on the turf course is slated for Saturday. Post time for the first race is 12:15 p.m.
The feature race is the third, a $54,500, 1-mile allowance with an optional claiming price of $100,000. Six of the eight horses will be running for the six-figure price tag (the record for the most expensive claim ever made at Tampa Bay Downs is $75,000). The 2-1 morning-line favorite is Exact Estimate, a 6-year-old who is 4-for-12 in his career with four seconds.
Owned by Jeffrey Drown and Don Rachel and trained by Chad Brown, Exact Estimate will be ridden by Samy Camacho.
Also on Saturday, Tampa Bay Downs will simulcast the Grade II, $1.25-million Oaklawn Handicap from Oaklawn Park in Arkansas. The eight-horse field includes last year’s Oaklawn Handicap winner, 6-year-old Skippylongstocking, who will be making his first start since winning the Grade III Michelob Ultra Challenger Stakes on March 8 at Tampa Bay Downs in track-record time – his third consecutive victory in that race.
Skippylongstocking, who is owned by Daniel Alonso and trained by Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., will be ridden by Irad Ortiz, Jr. Skippylongstocking is the 5-2 second choice on the morning line behind the Brad Cox-trained multiple graded-stakes winner First Mission at 2-1. Bred and owned by Godolphin, the 5-year-old First Mission will be ridden by Flavien Prat.
Post time for the Oaklawn Handicap is 7:10 p.m. Eastern Time.
Leading Tampa Bay Downs jockey Samuel Marin will be at Laurel Park in Maryland to ride in a pair of stakes races that will be simulcast at Tampa Bay Downs. In the 10th race, the $100,000 Henry S. Clark Stakes for horses 3-years-old-and-upward at a mile on the turf, Marin will ride 5-year-old Signator for trainer Claude “Shug” McGaughey, III. In the 11th, the $100,000 Federico Tesio for 3-year-olds at a mile-and-an-eighth, Marin has the assignment on Arcadian for Oldsmar-based trainer Gregg Sacco.
Laurel’s first post time is 12:10 p.m. and the Henry S. Clark should go off around 4:39 p.m.
Tampa Bay Downs will be closed in its entirety Sunday for Easter. The track will reopen Monday 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.
