History

2018 - A festive crowd of 11,055, the second-largest in track history, attended the May 5 Kentucky Derby Day card, participating in the traditions of the world’s most famous horse race while enjoying the live action. Three Tampa Bay Downs “graduates” competed in the Run for the Roses, including Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes winner Flameaway, while the connections of Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby winner Quip opted to wait for the Preakness. Tampa Bay Downs introduced four new stakes races for 3-year-olds during the 2017-2018 meeting, all sponsored by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association. The $125,000 FTBOA Marion County Florida Sire Stakes for colts and geldings and the $125,000 City of Ocala Florida Sire Stakes for fillies were run Dec. 16; the $100,000 FTBOA Silver Charm Florida Sire Stakes for colts and geldings and the $100,000 FTBOA Ivanavinalot Florida Sire Stakes for fillies were contested May 5. Tampa Bay Downs presented its richest stakes schedule in history, with 28 stakes worth $3.65-million in purse money. Purse money for the Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby was increased to $400,000 and the March 10 Festival Day program included five stakes worth $1-million. Total all-sources handle on the Festival Day card was $14,859,632, a Tampa Bay Downs record. Visitors to the track were impressed by a new 17-foot-by-30-foot Daktronics LED high-definition video display board rising above the infield tote board. Also enhancing customer convenience were technology upgrades allowing fans to wager, order food and drinks and purchase tickets for special events directly from the track’s website, www.tampabaydowns.com Tampa Bay Downs added a Spanish-language link that featured live race-day podcasts and enabled fans to acquire online program pages printed in Spanish. On the racing front, Gerald Bennett notched his third track training title and fourth overall with 53 victories. Antonio Gallardo returned to win his fourth riding title with 120 winners, while Bradenton, Fla., resident Rich Averill sent out 19 winners, both individually and in several partnerships, to capture the owners title. Jose A. Bracho was the leading apprentice jockey with 17 winners and added 14 to his total after becoming a journeyman. The leading Thoroughbred by number of victories was 4-year-old filly Jermyn Street, who won five times for owners Vince Campanella and Nation’s Racing Stable and trainer Keith Nations. The reigning Eclipse Award Champion Turf Male, World

Approval, made a triumphant return to the Oldsmar oval on Feb. 10, winning the Grade III Tampa Bay Stakes on the turf under Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez. World Approval had won twice previously at Tampa Bay Downs, taking the Florida Cup Sophomore Turf in 2015 and the Florida Cup EG Vodka Turf Classic in 2017. On Feb. 2, Gallardo rode five winners on a Tampa Bay Downs card for a record fourth time. That feat was also accomplished on April 7 by Samy Camacho, who finished second in the meeting standings with 100 victories. The third jockey to ride five winners on a single card was Hall of Fame rider Javier Castellano, whose haul on March 25 included four of six Florida Cup Day stakes, a first in track history. After returning to action from a spill at Delaware Park in which he suffered a collapsed lung, eight broken ribs and three fractured vertebrae, Jose Ferrer won the 69th annual George Woolf Memorial Jockey award in voting by his fellow riders. The Woolf Award honors a rider whose career and personal character earn esteem for the individual and the sport of Thoroughbred racing. Ferrer defeated Javier Castellano, Alex Birzer, Joe Talamo and Rodney Prescott in the balloting. Tampa Bay Downs trainer Kathleen O’Connell was honored as the Leading Trainer of Florida-breds by wins for the 10th time and as the Leading Trainer of Florida-breds by stakes wins for the second time at the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association’s Awards Banquet and Gala in Ocala in March. Matt Mitchell of The Downs Golf Practice Facility won the Teacher of the Year Award from the North Florida Section of the Professional Golfers’ Association of America for the second time. Mike Allen rode the 2,000th winner of his career on April 13 aboard 4-year-old filly Diva Chick for owner Ridenjac Racing and trainer Dennis Ward. On July 1, the second day of the Summer Festival of Racing and Music, Tampa Bay Downs played host to Corgi racing, delighting a rail-side throng that thrilled to the lovable dogs sprinting to their masters.

2019 - The largest crowd to ever attend Tampa Bay Downs on a Kentucky Derby Day, 11,924, watched Grade II, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby winner Tacitus finish third in the 145th Run for the Roses, behind Country House and Code of Honor. The crowd was the second-largest ever at Tampa Bay Downs. Jockey Pablo Morales was 5-for-5 on the Oldsmar card, including stakes victories on Jackson in the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association Silver Charm Florida Sire Stakes and Wildwood's Beauty in the FTBOA Ivanavinalot Florida Sire Stakes. Trained by Hall of Fame conditioner Bill Mott, who also trained Country House, Tacitus set a stakes record of 1:41.90 in winning the 39th renewal of the mile-and-a-sixteenth Oldsmar showcase on March 9. Total all-sources handle on the Festival Day card was $13,956,020, the second-largest figure in track history. Gerald Bennett notched his fourth consecutive Tampa Bay Downs training title and fifth overall, sending out 69 winners to outdistance two-time champion Kathleen O’Connell. Bennett’s haul included a four-victory performance on Feb. 17. Samy Camacho captured his first jockeys’ title, riding 123 winners and also leading in total purse money with $1,825,058.

Camacho rode three stakes winners during the meeting. Rich Averill of Bradenton, Fla., the force behind Averill Racing, was leading owner with 23 victories, 14 coming as sole owner and nine in various partnerships. Juan C. Rodriguez, 18, was the track’s leading apprentice jockey. Pablo Morales took third place (behind Camacho and Antonio Gallardo) with 69 victories. Morales scored one of the track’s most popular victories in recent years when he rode the O’Connell-trained Florida-bred gelding Well Defined to an upset victory in the Grade III, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes on Feb. 9. On Jan. 19, another Florida-bred, 3-year-old colt Win Win Win, established a 7-furlong track record of 1:20.89 in winning the Pasco Stakes. Win Win Win finished third in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby. Still another Florida-bred, World of Trouble, astounded onlookers on Dec. 15 by winning the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Marion County Florida Sire Stakes by 13 ¾ lengths on a sloppy track in 1:22.50 for 7 furlongs. The (then)-3year-old colt’s Beyer Speed Figure of 109 is the highest in track history. Another track record was set by 3-year-old colt Jackson, who won the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Silver Charm Florida Sire Stakes in 1:38.86 for a mile-and-40 yards. The 6-year-old gelding Marksman, who won the final leg of the Tampa Turf

Test starter handicap series in 2:15.94 for the mile-and-three-eighths distance, also set a track mark. Stakes records were set by Tacitus and World of Trouble (both mentioned, above); Miz Mayhem, in the Lightning City Stakes on the turf; Tapa Tapa Tapa, in the Wayward Lass Stakes; and Wildwood’s Beauty, in the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Ivanavinalot Florida Sire Stakes. Tampa Bay Downs unveiled a number of promotions designed to introduce newcomers to the majesty and excitement of Thoroughbred racing, and all were met with widespread public approval. The Tampa Bay Owners Club contest gave fans a chance to experience the thrills of ownership by allowing anyone who selected the winner of a designated race to join a fantasy stable “owning” the horse, rewarding the winners with free admission, a program, a mutuel voucher, and concession-stand discounts each time their horse ran at Tampa Bay Downs. The horse, War Bridle, finished fourth in the Pasco Stakes for his vast connections, as well as actual owner Backstretch Farms and trainer Joan Scott. The Tampa Bay Downs “College Days” essay contest aimed to generate fresh ideas from students on how racetracks can successfully market horse racing to a new generation of fans. A total of 95 students entered the contest, with five chosen as winners based on the quality and originality of their essays. Each of the winners received a $2,000 scholarship prize awarded through the Upper Tampa Bay Chamber of Commerce Educational Foundation. Tampa Bay Downs continued its outreach efforts to members of “Generation Z” by inviting all youngsters to the winner’s circle after a designated race each Sunday for the remainder of the meeting. Other popular new promotions included the High Rollers Handicapping Contest; Military Appreciation Day; Bourbon, Barbecue and Cigars; and Seafood Fest & Crawfish Boil. Parts of three racing cards were cancelled by heavy rain and lightning, including eight of the last nine races on May 5, Fan Appreciation Day. Emotions flowed freely on the afternoon of March 15 when David Flores, who rode 3,608 winners as a jockey, earned his first career training victory with the 3-year-old colt Higgins, who was ridden by the trainer’s close friend, fellow Mexican Jesus Castanon. Earlier in the meeting, on Jan. 5, Castanon rode career winner No. 2,500, scoring on the 6-year-old mare

Tearless for trainer Derek Ryan. In a rarity that may be a first in track history, trainers Tyler Rotstein and Lee Cameron scored their first career victories in back-to-back races on April 6.

2019 - Pete Crisswell, a former jockey who has been a chaplain at racetracks in California, Oklahoma, Kansas, New Mexico, Louisiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Wyoming and Pennsylvania, arrived at Tampa Bay Downs to assist horsemen, jockeys and backstretch workers in managing their daily walks.

2020 - Tampa Bay Downs, and the entire Thoroughbred racing industry, faced an unprecedented challenge when the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic resulted in a shutdown of business and recreation throughout much of the world. The Oldsmar oval raced without spectators from March 18 through the duration of the meeting, while a number of racetracks closed entirely and others had their spring openings postponed. The Tampa Bay Downs signal remained popular with account-wagering bettors, helping the track receive two dates extensions from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and sustaining horsemen and horsewomen with limited options. Originally scheduled as a 90-day meeting, the 2020-2021 season was capped after a track-record 111 performances.

Familiar faces topped the standings on June 30, the final day of the 2019-2020 meeting, as Antonio Gallardo rode 122 winners to earn his fifth Jockeys title in seven seasons and Gerald Bennett captured his fifth consecutive Trainers title (and sixth overall) with 61 victories. Bennett also won his first Owners championship, as his Winning Stables – as a sole entity and in various partnerships – sent out 24 winners, five more than runners-up Godolphin and Juan Arriagada.

Those accomplishments, while hard-earned and well-deserved, took a backseat to the news off the racetrack. Less than two weeks after 49-1 shot King Guillermo won the 40th edition of the Grade II, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on March 7, Tampa Bay Downs entered a new reality as track officials, Thoroughbred racing participants and lawmakers debated what came next. Tampa Bay Downs formulated health and safety protocol measures to protect backstretch workers, enabling horsemen to compete, while fans continued to bet on the races through account-wagering sites such as NYRA Bets, DRF Bets and TVG and watched the races online at www.tampabaydowns.com. The track reopened for simulcasting on July 2 with strict health and safety measures in place, including requiring patrons to wear masks and practice social distancing. Given the rampant uncertainty, and following the postponement of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve from May 2 to Sept. 5, the events of March 7 and Festival Day 40 seemed a distant past to many. A crowd of 10,021 contributed to total wagering of $13,155,349 on Festival Day, the third-highest allsources handle in track history. King Guillermo was ridden by popular Venezuelan jockey Samy Camacho, trained by Camacho’s countryman Juan Carlos Avila and owned by former major league baseball slugger Victor Martinez, also from Venezuela. Avila had celebrated earlier that day when his 4-year-old colt Trophy Chaser won the Grade III Challenger Stakes while competing under the conditioner’s JCA Racing Stable banner. The other Festival Day stakes winners included Floridabred mare Starship Jubilee in the Grade II Hillsborough Stakes on the turf, 3-year-old filly Outburst in the Grade III Florida Oaks on the grass and 3-year-old Doc Boy in the Columbia Stakes on the turf. Four weeks earlier, on Festival Preview Day, the gelding Sole Volante, the second-place finisher in the Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, won the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes. Six-time leading Tampa Bay Downs jockey Daniel Centeno won four races on the Festival Preview Day card, including victories in the Grade III Lambholm South Endeavour aboard Jehozacat and the Suncoast Stakes on Lucrezia, both for trainer Arnaud Delacour. Centeno also won two stakes on the Dec. 7 card: the Inaugural with Zaino Boyz and the Sandpiper with Lucrezia. The track’s 94th anniversary season started with a bang on the Nov. 27 Opening Day card when trainer Michael Stidham notched career victory No. 2,000 with 4-year-old colt Lem Me Tel Ya, owned by the conditioner’s assistant, Ben Trask. Riding newcomer Angel Suarez scored three victories on the Opening Day card and went on to a fifthplace finish with 58 victories. On Dec. 29, Gallardo won two races, boosting his 2019 total to 266, sixth highest in North America. Oldsmar jockey Pablo Morales finished 12th in the continent with 226 winners. Hall of Fame jockey Jacinto Vasquez, winner of the Kentucky Derby twice and best known as the rider of legendary filly Ruffian, was track announcer Richard Grunder’s “Morning Glory Club” show guest on Jan. 4. Former Thoroughbred owner Mike Buccina won the track’s “High Rollers Handicapping Contest” on Jan. 11, winning first prize of

2020 - Buccina was one of 92 participants. On Jan. 18, Skyway Festival Day, jockey Edgard Zayas was 4-for-4, including stakes victories on Liam’s Lucky Charm in the Pasco and Two Sixty in the Gasparilla. The following day, Antonio Gallardo rode five winners on a card for the fifth time at Tampa Bay Downs. No other jockey has achieved the feat more than twice. A TwinSpires account bettor was the only player to hit the late Pick-5 on Feb. 8 (Festival Preview Day), collecting $435,029.40. The winning combination was 3-1-3-2-12. On Feb. 14, 3-year-old Gouverneur Morris, trained by Todd Pletcher and ridden by John Velazquez, won his 2020 debut in an allowance/optional claiming event in 1:38.88 for the mile-and-40-yard distance, .02 seconds off the track record. Pletcher had followed a similar path in 2017 with Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming, but Gouverneur Morris was forced off the Kentucky Derby trail in June with a case of colitis. On Feb. 22, Faction Cat, a 7-year-old Florida-bred gelding trained by Georgina Baxter, won the Turf Dash Stakes in 53.97 seconds, a 5-furlong course record. Albin Jimenez was the jockey. On the same card, 5-year-old mare Jean Elizabeth set a stakes record of 55.09 in the Lightning City Stakes on the turf. Jimenez rode for trainer and co-owner Larry Rivelli. Pablo Morales came back from a foot injury that sidelined him for more than two months to capture career victory No. 2,000 on June 24 aboard the maiden filly Sanguine.

2021 - Four 10-percent purse increases during the 2020-2021 meeting eased the anxieties of horsemen concerned about the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on racing at the Oldsmar oval. The fourth hike, which took effect April 14, raised purse money by $3,000 a race, with maiden special weight races offering $29,000. Previous boosts took place on Dec. 16, Feb. 3 and Feb. 20. When the meeting resumed on Nov. 25, track management mandated temperature checks and required horsemen, jockeys and fans to wear masks and observe social distancing (rules that had been in place since July 2, when the track reopened to fans for simulcast wagering). The regulations represented a concerted effort to minimize the risk of contracting the virus. Few complained, since spectators had been barred from attending the races since March 18.

Attendance was limited throughout the meeting to about 30 percent of capacity, with that figure eased on May 1 (Kentucky Derby Day), which drew a crowd of 4,872. Moving forward, it is the wish of everyone associated with Tampa Bay Downs that masks will no longer be required during the 2021-2022 meeting and that other COVID-19 restrictions will be lifted as a majority of the race-going population has been vaccinated. The biggest race of the meeting, the Grade II, $400,000 Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on March 6, produced an unexpected yet popular result. Making his third lifetime start, and first on a dirt surface, Helium rallied on the far turn and held off a belated bid by Hidden Stash to post a 15-1 upset under jockey Jose Ferrer, a 56-year-old Tampa resident who had not won a graded stakes in 10 years. It was Ferrer’s first Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby victory and the second for Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse, who used to watch the races in the early 1970s at Tampa Bay Downs from the back of his father’s truck, before children were allowed in the track. After racing in close attendance to the lead in the early stages of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve, Helium finished eighth, the best finish of the four Run for the Roses entrants who competed at Tampa Bay Downs. Two stakes records were set on the Festival Day card, as 3-year-old colt Winfromwithin set a stakes and course record of 1:33.23 in the 1-mile Columbia Stakes on the turf and 3-year-old filly Domain Expertise established a stakes record of 1:41.12 in the Grade III Florida Oaks going a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the grass. When the proverbial dust had settled, the 12-race card had generated total mutuel handle of $15,229,366, a single-day track record.

A few weeks after the Festival Day Presented by Lambholm South excitement, Tampa Bay Downs followers were stunned by the announcement that announcer Richard Grunder would retire on May 2 after 37 years behind the microphone. Grunder, who at the time was the longest-tenured horse racing announcer in the United States, called his first race at age 20 in August of 1973 at Marquis Downs in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He called 37,587 races at Tampa Bay Downs, and after his final race, the jockeys and their valets lined up in the winner’s circle, waving toward the press box and shouting encouragement to the man whose voice is the only one most Oldsmar followers have ever known.

2021 - His replacement is Jason Beem, who took over during the Summer Festival of Racing. Beem, a University of Washington graduate, also calls races at Colonial Downs in Virginia and Grants Pass Downs in Oregon.

The competition for leading jockey was spirited throughout the meeting. Most experts called the 2020-2021 riding colony the best in the track’s history, but by midseason, Samy Camacho and Antonio Gallardo had separated themselves from the pack. Camacho rode four winners on the May 2 card to forge a 107103 advantage, capturing his second title in three seasons and depriving Gallardo of a record-tying sixth crown. Gallardo rode five winners on Dec. 5 for an unprecedented sixth time. The trainers’ race was not as suspenseful, as Gerald Bennett sent out 56 winners, 22 more than runner-up Jose H. Delgado, to earn his sixth consecutive title and seventh overall. Along the way, Bennett passed the late Frank H. Merrill, Jr., as the No. 1 Canadian-born trainer in history with his 3,975th winner. Bennett also won his second consecutive Leading Owner title, with his Winning Stables concern scoring 27 victories, alone and in different partnerships.

On Jan. 2, six-time Oldsmar jockey champion Daniel Centeno, a product of Venezuela who calls Tampa home, thrilled his supporters by notching his 3,000th victory in North America aboard Lucy’s Town in the Fillies and Mares Division of the Tampa Turf Test. Centeno, who rode 847 winners in Venezuela, is No. 1 all-time at Tampa Bay Downs with 1,429 victories and 54 stakes triumphs. Gallardo achieved a major career milestone of his own on Feb. 3 with career victory No. 2,000 on 5-year-old mare Do What It Takes. Both Lucy’s Town and Do What It Takes were trained by Jose H. Delgado. Gallardo became the 11th active Tampa Bay Downs jockey with 2,000 or more victories.

2022 - On March 12, trainer Brian Lynch’s 3-year-old colt Classic Causeway became the seventh horse to win both of the Oldsmar oval’s graded stakes for Kentucky Derby prospects when he triumphed in the Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, four weeks after his Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes score. In July, after being transferred to the barn of trainer Ken

McPeek, Classic Causeway won the Grade I Caesars Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes on the turf. The March 12 Festival Day card generated total all-sources wagering handle of $20,778,222, an all-time track record and a 36-percent increase from the previous mark of $15.2-million set in 2021. Total handle for 89 days of racing climbed to $401,467,564, marking the first time since 2011 – when 121 more races were contested – that handle surpassed $400-million. Average handle per starter was $64,317, a 10.2-percent increase, while average daily on-track handle increased 20.6 percent. Horsemen reaped the benefits of the additional wagering activity, as Tampa Bay Downs paid out $18,204,465 in purse money, up 8 percent from 2020-2021 and a 17-percent increase from the 2018-2019 (pre-pandemic) meet. The average daily purse distribution of $204,545 was a track record. Mirroring trends at most North American racetracks, the average field size per race fell from 8.27 horses to 7.86, a decline attributable in large part to a steady drop in the size of the North American foal crop, to an estimated 19,200 in 2021. The shortage resulted in horsemen filling out claims slips at a record pace to restock their stables. When the dust settled, an all-time track record of 351 horses were claimed (131 more than the previous season) at a total cost of $3,970,000. On the racetrack, Classic Causeway was one of numerous Thoroughbreds to make lasting impressions. Bleecker Street, a 4-year-old turf-loving filly owned by Peter M. Brant and trained by Chad Brown, won the Grade III Endeavour Stakes and the Grade II Hillsborough Stakes under jockey Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr., to improve her career record to 5-for-5. Bleecker Street became a Grade I winner in June, capturing the New York Stakes at Belmont. Another impressive performance was turned in by trainer Todd Pletcher’s 3-yearold filly Nest, who won the Suncoast Stakes in stakes-record time of 1:39.30 for the mile-and-40-yard distance on the main track. After a subsequent victory in the Grade I Central Bank Ashland Stakes at Keeneland, Nest finished second to Secret Oath in the Longines Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. Nest vaulted to the top of the Eclipse Award candidates list with subsequent Grade I victories at Saratoga in the Coaching Club