Promising 3-year-olds, including a trio trained by Hall of Famer Mark Casse, compete Jan. 14 at Tampa Bay Downs in the Pasco Stakes for males and the Gasparilla Stakes for fillies. Both races are at seven furlongs and worth up to $125,000, with only participating Florida-breds in the open events eligible for the whole purse.
Also on Saturday's annual Skyway Festival Day card is the $50,000 Wayward Lass Stakes for older fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles.
Casse runs a pair in the Pasco: Rosedown Racing Stables' Kentucky-bred Champions Dream , winner of the Nov. 6 Nashua Stakes (G3) at Aqueduct Racetrack for prior trainer Danny Gargan, and Reeves Thoroughbred Racing and Gary Barber's Armstrong, who scored last out in the Dec. 9 Clarendon Stakes against Canadian-breds over a synthetic surface at Woodbine. Champions Dream, a gray or roan son of Justify , starts for Casse for the first time after moving into his barn about two months ago.
"He's training really well. I have been impressed by the way he has trained at our training center," Casse said. "Obviously, he's been very successful; he's 2-for-3. He won the Nashua—in my opinion, it was kind of a weak Nashua. So he's going to have to step up his game a little bit, but he's training as nice as a horse can train right now. So I would expect him to run well and be tough to beat.
"Armstrong (a bay by Mucho Macho Man ) is a beautiful horse—both of them are good-looking horses—Armstrong is a horse that we've been high on early on. He's a Canadian-bred, so he went to Woodbine. He just won a nice race in his last start—he won that stake; he beat a pretty good horse.
"Now comes the question, is he as good on the dirt as he is on Tapeta? Every indication at this point in time is he gets over the dirt well. He gets over it well at our training center. But running on it and training on it are two different things.
"Both those horses—I'm just looking to see where their next step is, how good they are. Obviously, you always have Derby dreams, and that's what we're dreaming, but they have to show that they belong. Saturday, as I always say, is like part of putting a puzzle together."
Four foes are lined up against the Casse duo, led by Winning Stables' Handsome Playboy, runner-up in the Inaugural Stakes last month at Tampa and a subsequent first-level allowance optional claiming winner.
The Casse-trained Personal Pursuit, a gray Kentucky-bred daughter of Tapit owned by Tracy Farmer, is more of a question mark in the Gasparilla, moving from grass to dirt. She adds blinkers for a start against a quick field in the Gasparilla, which Casse calls "a tough little race." Personal Pursuit's lone victory came in an off-the-turf contest on dirt during the Belmont at the Big A meet Sept. 22.
"I actually thought she would run better on the grass. She just ran OK," he said of her performances when fifth in the Matron Stakes (G3T) and fourth in the Wait a While Stakes last year. "I've always felt she was a turf horse, but an early performance on the dirt was pretty darn good, so we're going to give her another try on it. She's training really well, had a nice breeze the other day."
The Gasparilla includes the 1-2-4 finishers from the Dec. 3 Sandpiper Stakes at Tampa in Dorth Vader, Awesome Pic, and Dreaming of Snow.
Gulfstream Park, Saturday, January 14, 2023, Race 9Entries: Sunshine Filly and Mare Turf S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Sonar (FL) Edgard J. Zayas 122 Juan Alvarado 8/1 2 2Avow (FL) Irad Ortiz, Jr. 118 Todd A. Pletcher 4/1 3 3Don't Get Khozy (FL) Leonel Reyes 122 Elizabeth L. Dobles 12/1 4 4Sweet Dani Girl (FL) Joel Rosario 118 Carlo Vaccarezza 7/2 5 5Extravagant Rosie (FL) Jorge Ruiz 118 J. Kent Sweezey 20/1 6 6Crystal Coast (FL) Luis Saez 118 Carlos A. David 8/1 7 7Sugar Fix (FL) Tyler Gaffalione 120 Robert B. Hess, Jr. 2/1 8 8Lookinlikeaqueen (FL) Junior Alvarado 118 Monica McGoey 12/1 9 9Mona Stella (FL) Jose L. Ortiz 118 Patrick L. Biancone 10/1
