The Tampa Bay Stakes Grade III

$175,000 Tampa Bay Stakes

Fastest Time: 1:39.25* EMMANUEL (2023)

Slowest Time: 1:51.1 LORD JOHN (1992)

Longest Priced Winner: $ 59.40 ROMAN TIGER (2012)

Shortest Priced Winner: $ 2.40 WORLD APPROVAL (2018)

Closest Winning Margin: Nose KARELIAN ROMAN TIGER ADMIRALTY PIER

(2010) (2012) (2020)

Largest Winning Margin: 5 ¾ Lengths DELAY OF GAME (2000)

Shortest Priced Loser: $ .20 GIO PONTI (2010)

Track Condition: Firm Soft Good Yielding

All except 2008 2013 and 2015 2014

Richest Purse: $175,000 2018-Present

Other Notes: Co-owner WinStar Farm and trainer Todd Pletcher combined for their first Tampa Bay Stakes victory since 2011 with 4-year-old colt Emmanuel, who established a course record in the effort. The come-from-behind victory by Shirl’s Speight in 2022 was a precursor to his triumph 10 weeks later in the Grade I Maker’s Mark Mile Stakes at Keeneland. In 2021, Get Smokin turned in a career-best performance to boost his lifetime earnings above $300,000. In 2020, the 5-year-old gelding Admiralty Pier emerged from a three-horse photo finish to give jockey Samy Camacho his first career graded-stakes victory. Hall of Fame trainer Claude “Shug” McGaughey, III knows how to get a horse ready for the Grade III Tampa Bay Stakes. He won it in 2019 for the third time in four years with Inspector Lynley, who also won the 2017 edition. McGaughey is one of six Hall of Fame trainers to win the Tampa Bay Stakes, joining Roger Attfield last season; Mark Casse (World Approval, 2018); Todd Pletcher (Emmanuel and Doubles Partner, 2011); Bill Mott (Boastful, 2002); and Woody Stephens (Homebuilder, 1988). The winner's share of $115,000 in 2018 raised World Approval's career bankroll above $3-million. He is a product of breeder-owner Charlotte Weber's Live Oak Stud and the 2017 Eclipse Award Champion Turf Male. As a 4-year-old, 2015 winner Lochte won the Grade I Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap in 2014 and placed in two other Grade I stakes. Guys Reward, the 2014 winner, was no stranger to graded turf stakes success; in 2012, he won the Grade II Firecracker Handicap at Churchill Downs. Swift Warrior, who finished third in the 2012 Tampa Bay Stakes, won the 2013 renewal three weeks after capturing the Grade III John B. Connally Turf Cup at Sam Houston. The race was run at 1 1/8-mile until 1993, when it was run at 1 1/16. It was moved to the turf in 1999. John Callaway won twice as owner/trainer with Lord John in 1992 and 1993. Jockeys William Henry and Ricardo Lopez each won the race three times. The 1995 winner, Not Surprising, went on to be voted an Eclipse Award as Outstanding Sprinter based on eight stakes victories, including four graded New York events. Previously known as the Tampa Bay Breeders’ Cup, the race enjoyed its most exciting renewal in 2010, when Karelian and jockey Rosemary Homeister, Jr., edged Eclipse champion Gio Ponti and Ramon Dominguez by a nose. Karelian’s victory was the third in the race for trainer George “Rusty” Arnold, II. Trainer Dennis Manning won in 2009 with Victory Alleged and in 2012 with Roman Tiger.