tampa bay downs

It would be inaccurate to say Pedro Monterrey, Jr., has been fixated on winning the $5,000 Jockeys’ Challenge during the Summer Festival of Racing and Music at Tampa Bay Downs. But after finishing second, second and fourth in the two-day competition the last three years, the 33-year-old Venezuelan had a strong idea what he needed […]

Two days of excitement-packed Thoroughbred racing provide the backdrop for a full weekend of entertainment – including the highly popular Corgi races – during the sixth annual Summer Festival of Racing and Music on Saturday and Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs. A full slate of activity Saturday begins at 12:30 p.m. with eight races. The […]

Gerald Bennett plans to haul five horses to Delaware Park on Monday, with another 10 or so headed out on a van Thursday. By the time he’s finished, the veteran trainer should have between 30-35 horses ready for action for the May 30 opening. Transporting Thoroughbreds is second nature for Bennett, who captured his third consecutive Tampa Bay Downs […]

The latest American Horse Council study pinpoints the Florida equine industry’s large-scale economic impact and industry officials are taking note. The $6.8 billion annual equine economic impact in Florida is up by 33% since the last study over a decade ago. The racing sector’s impact is up 47%. “That’s significant,” said Lonny Powell, CEO of […]

WinStar Farm, China Horse Club International and SF Racing’s Grade 2 winner Quip returned to the work tab with a half-mile breeze Thursday morning at Keeneland ahead of his anticipated start in the 143rd Preakness Stakes (G1). A bay son of Distorted Humor bred by WinStar, Quip went four furlongs in 48 seconds over Keeneland’s main track in […]

Colts and geldings that compete in the inaugural $100,000 Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Silver Charm Florida Sire Stakes on Saturday, May 5 at Tampa Bay Downs will be racing for more than the winner’s purse. The race is a “Win & You’re In” opportunity for the winner, who will earn an invitation to spend his […]

Trainer Tom Albertrani said his Grade III Florida Oaks winner, Andina Del Sur, will return to the turf after her fourth-place finish two weeks ago in the Grade I Central Bank Ashland Stakes on the dirt at Keeneland. The 3-year-old filly is back at the conditioner’s base at Belmont Park in New York, with tentative […]

Mike Allen isn’t given to waxing nostalgic about his 32-plus years as a jockey, even after his 2,000th career victory Friday at Tampa Bay Downs unleashed a flood of memories. But the reaction from family, friends and horsemen helped him put the magnitude of the achievement in perspective. “I had one trainer say, ‘What percentage […]

Too Charming broke her maiden in the third race on the turf at Tampa Bay Downs on Sunday(contested before the skies opened), rolling to a length-and-a-quarter victory from Lemon Princess. Daniel Centeno rode the winner, a homebred dau ghter of Bernardini-Tout Charmant racing for Godolphin and trained by Tom Albertrani. The race featured the career […]

Mike Allen, who has been on both ends of enough photo finishes to know the score, had a quick quip for Samy Camacho after their mounts crossed the wire together in the first race at Tampa Bay Downs. “I said ‘You didn’t get me this time, Samy,’ ” Allen recounted after winning by a nose […]