Tampa Bay Downs will be represented on the Road to the Kentucky Oaks Feb. 7 with the Suncoast Stakes, but an early look at some of the 3-year-old fillies potentially aiming for that spot will take place Jan. 10.
Six runners are entered for the $125,000 Gasparilla Stakes over 7 furlongs, and if the race was determined purely off their last performance it would go the way of Tessellate.
After a pair of summer stakes defeats at the hooves of Willow Case, the McKinzie filly cut back from a mile to 6 1/2 furlongs off two months' rest to trounce her foes in Gulfstream Park's Juvenile Fillies Sprint Stakes Nov. 15 by 13 lengths. Owned by Magic Cap Stables, Paul Braverman, Timothy Pinch, Castle Gate Farm, BAG Racing Stables, John Reinhardt, and Turf Express Racing, the Saffie Joseph Jr.-trained Florida-bred earned a career-high 82 Equibase Speed Figure.
She'll be up against several Tampa locals Saturday, like Glen Hill Farm homebred Lightscape. The Thomas Proctor-trained Practical Joke filly debuted over 6 furlongs on the track with a 2 3/4-length triumph. The race has held good form as runner-up Permian Basin came back to win.
Martin Goodell's Ridgie enters stakes company for the first time riding a three-race win streak for trainer Maria Bowersock, including the last two at Tampa Bay Downs. Stakes winner Gerrards Cross aims to improve after finishing seventh in the Sandpiper Stakes at Tampa Dec. 6 off a four-month layoff.
Tampa Bay Downs, Saturday, January 10, 2026, Race 6Entries: Gasparilla S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Lady Valor (KY) Samy Camacho 120 Michael B. Campbell 6/1 2 2Love Like Lucy (FL) Micah J. Husbands 120 Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. 9/2 3 3Tessellate (FL) Edgard J. Zayas 124 Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. 1/1 4 4Lightscape (KY) Samuel Marin 120 Thomas F. Proctor 3/1 5 5Ridgie (FL) Cesar Gonzalez 120 Maria Bowersock 8/1 6 6Gerrards Cross (FL) Sonny Leon 124 Kathleen O'Connell 15/1
Oaks Alumni Drexel Hill, Early On Meet Again in Wayward Lass
Whether one of these fillies will make it to Churchill Downs May 1 for the Kentucky Oaks (G1) is yet to be seen, but the card does have guaranteed Oaks runners on the card.
Legion Racing's Drexel Hill, who was runner-up in the 3-year-old filly showcase last spring, makes her second start since in the $125,000 Wayward Lass Stakes for older fillies and mares over 1 1/16 miles. Following the Oaks, she underwent surgery to remove a bone chip from one of her knees and returned Nov. 8 with a runner-up finish in the Mother Goose Stakes (G2) at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The Whit Beckman trainee breaks from the far outside in a six-horse field and reunites with Ben Curtis, who rode the Bolt d'Oro filly in her first three starts as a 3-year-old but missed the Mother Goose.
Among her rivals is a familiar face in BAG Racing Stables, Ken Reimer, Braverman, Pinch, and Bradley Kent's Early On, who was eighth in the Oaks after being runner-up in the Gazelle Stakes (G3) and Virginia Oaks for Joseph. Also in the field is Holly Hill Stables' Runaway Diva, who makes her first start since September when second to Drexel Hill's half sister, Regaled, in the Delaware Handicap (G3).
Tampa Bay Downs, Saturday, January 10, 2026, Race 7Entries: Wayward Lass S.
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Ultimate Authority (KY) Micah J. Husbands 120 Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. 5/1 2 2Early On (NY) Daniel Centeno 120 Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. 6/1 3 3Rosario's Prayer (KY) Sonny Leon 120 Alexis Cordero-Lopez 30/1 4 4Runaway Diva (KY) Samuel Marin 120 Michelle Hemingway 7/2 5 5Andrea (KY) Edgard J. Zayas 120 Saffie A. Joseph, Jr. 6/1 6 6Drexel Hill (KY) Ben Curtis 120 D. Whitworth Beckman 4/5
