BY TAMPA BAY DOWNS PRESS OFFICE (Edited)
OLDSMAR, FL—Tampa Bay Downs legendary trainer Gerald Bennett was nominated to the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame on Tuesday and on Sunday he could add to his remarkable resume when he saddles four runners here in the six stakes comprising the Florida Cup for horses bred in the Sunshine State.
“I’ve been training for a long time,” said the 80-year-old horseman, who was born in Spring Hill, Nova Scotia and through March 25 had trained 4,240 winners over the past 50 years to make him the all-time winningest Canadian-born trainer. “It’s quite an honor to be nominated.”
The 23rd edition of the Florida Cup at Tampa Bay Downs on March 29 presents opportunities for horses in six divisions, with three of the stakes contested on the main track and three contested over the turf course. Forty-five Florida-breds were entered and will compete for purses of $110,00 in each of the six races.
Bennett, the record-sharing nine-time top trainer at Tampa Bay Downs and the current meet leader in the standings, will run two locally based members of his stable in the NYRA Bets Sprint, which drew a compact but highly competitive field of six older horses traveling six furlongs on the main track. Chrome Ghost will break from post three under Samy Camacho and El Principito will depart from his outside in post four with Samuel Marin in the irons. Marin and Camacho currently rank first and second, respectively, in the jockey standings.
Chrome Ghost is a 6-year-old gelded son of Shaman Ghost and he is right at home with four wins in nine starts here and can boast an in-the-money finish of seven-for-nine on this track. El Principito, by Accelerate, finished sixth in the $100,000 Pelican Stakes here two starts back on February 7.
“I hope that home field advantage will be a help for them,” said Bennett. “Chrome Ghost is pretty consistent. He likes this track and he’s training well. El Principito has been getting out of the gate a little bit slow, so I took the blinkers off him and took him over to the gate and breezed him without the blinkers. He worked really good so hopefully, he’ll get a good break out of the gate this time.”
The others in the field from the rail out with riders are Flood Zone, Irad Ortiz, Jr.; Classic of Course, Romero Ramsay Maragh; Damon’s Mound, Junior Alvarado; and Nothingsubtle, Marcos Meneses. Flood Zone, a 4-year-old colt trained by two-time Eclipse Award winner Brad Cox, and Damon’s Mound, a 6-year-old horse conditioned by five-time champion trainer Bill Mott, are both Grade 3 stakes winners.
“You’ve probably got to beat Bill Mott’s horse and Brad Cox’s horse,” Bennett said.
His other two entries for the Florida Cup are Questnbled’cisions in the Stonehedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies, who takes on six others at seven furlongs on the main track and has already won twice during the current meet, and Best Minet Yet, who competes against six others in the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomores, also at seven furlongs on the main track.
Bennett will saddle Best Minet Yet for the first time for owners Mr. Pug and J.P.G.2. The gelding was a standout six lengths winner in his only start here on February 25 and was haltered for $16,000 that day.
“We just claimed that horse from Kathy O’Connell that won very impressively and he is training very well for that 3-year-old race,” he said
The other stakes on the card are the AAA Feed & Tack Turf Classic at mile-and-an-eighth for horses aged four and older, the Pleasant Acres Stallions Distaff Turf for fillies and mares, 3-years-old and older at a mile-and-a-sixteenth and the Lambholm South Sophomore Turf for three year olds at a mile-and-a-sixteenth.
The Pleasant Acres Stallions Distaff Turf attracted a pair of 4-year-old fillies owned and bred by Live Oak Plantation. Souper Zonda, trained by dual Canadian and American Hall of Famer Mark Casse, took the $75,000 Sunshine Millions Filly & Mare Turf at a mile two starts back at Gulfstream. Souper Williwaw, conditioned by Mike Trombetta, is in pursuit of her first stakes score.
Trainer Saffie Joseph, Jr. nominated a pair for the Stonehedge Farm South Sophomore Fillies in Nasti Z, and Tessellate, who took the Gasparilla Stakes here at the same distance by 2 ¾ lengths two starts back on Jan 10. Nasti Z has raced once, winning a maiden claiming affair at Gulfstream in February, and is seeking her first stakes score.
Return to the March 27 issue of Wire to Wire
