The Turf Dash

$100,000 Turf Dash

Fastest Time: 53.97 FACTION CAT (2020)

Slowest Time: 58.11 SNEAKING UPONYOU (2010)

Longest Priced Winner: $24.80 FAST FLYING RUMOR (2016)

Shortest Priced Winner: $ 3.00 PAY ANY PRICE (2017)

Closest Winning Margin: Neck WESTERN KIND CASTLES IN THE SKY BRIDGETOWN

(2006) (2009) (2011)

Largest Winning Margin: 4 3/4 Lengths FAST FLYING RUMOR CHESS MASTER (2016) (2023)

Shortest Priced Loser: $ .90 CHAMBERLAIN BRIDGE (2009)

Track Condition: Firm Good Yielding

All except 2005, 2010, 2012 and 2013 2008

Richest Purse: $100,000 2014-present

Other Notes: Chess Master, a Florida-bred gelding who had been claimed two years earlier by owner-trainer Kerri Raven for $32,000 from a fourth-place finish at the Oldsmar oval, made his second consecutive Turf Dash triumph his 13th career victory. Chess Master, who had been claimed a year earlier by owner-trainer Kerri Raven for $32,000 from a fourth-place finish at the Oldsmar oval, made the Turf Dash his 11th career victory. The Critical Way displayed speed and determination in his 2021 Turf Dash triumph, setting blazing fractions of 20.99 seconds for the first quarter-mile and 43.54 for the half. Faction Cat, a 7-year-old Florida-bred gelding, set a course record of 53.97 seconds in the 2020 Turf Dash. The 6-year-old horse Vision Perfect closed out his 2018 season with a bang, repelling all challengers under jockey Antonio Gallardo. The winner's circle was a festive place after the 2017-2018 Turf Dash, with co-owner Rich Averill and about four dozen family members and friends celebrating Pay Any Price's dramatic victory. Daniel Centeno probably wishes the Turf Dash be contested twice a season. His victory aboard 7-year-old gelding Power Alert was the perennial leading jockey’s sixth in the event’s 13 editions. In 2015, Centeno helped Bold Thunder to a stakes and course-record performance. Fast Flying Rumor earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 108 for his 2016 victory, at the time the highest in Tampa Bay Downs history on either turf or dirt. With his record-shattering performance in the 2014 Turf Dash, 5-year-old gelding Ancil earned an invitation to Royal Ascot in England for his owners, Kathy Thompson of Brooksville, Fla., and Scott Farmer, and his trainer, Joan Scott. It was one of five stakes victories during the 2013-14 meeting for Centeno. Trainer Dennis Ward saddled two-time Turf Dash Stakes winner Great Attack in 2012 and 2013 for his son, trainer Wesley Ward. Great Attack won the Grade III Twin Spires Turf Sprint at Churchill Downs in 2012 on Kentucky Derby Day and competed in two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. He finished second in the 2011 Turf Dash. Great Attack was campaigned by Jeffrey Seder’s Houyhnhnm Stable. The Houyhnhnms were a race of intelligent horses in Jonathan Swift’s classic Gulliver’s Travels. Trainer Jamie Ness was unbeatable in this race from 2007-10, winning back-to-back with Lookinforthesecret, then saddling Castles in the Sky and Sneaking Uponyou. Centeno was aboard for the first three Ness triumphs and Huber Villa-Gomez rode Sneaking Uponyou. Bridgetown, the 2011 Turf Dash winner, was second in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.