Track Closed Sunday For Easter
BY TAMPA BAY DOWNS PRESS OFFICE
OLDSMAR, FL—Thoroughbred racing continues Friday at Tampa Bay Downs with a nine-race card beginning at 12:19 p.m. EDT.
Racing will also be conducted Saturday before Tampa Bay Downs closes for Easter Sunday. The track will then resume its Wednesday, Friday-Sunday schedule on April 3, with action ongoing through Kentucky Derby day, Saturday, May 4.
The ninth and final race on Wednesday was cancelled by a severe rain and lightning storm.
Saturday’s 10-race card includes the fourth and final legs of the Tampa Turf Test starter handicap series, with separate divisions for females and males. Both the second race, for older fillies and mares, and the sixth, for older colts and geldings, will be contested at a distance of a mile-and-three-eighths.
In the fillies and mares division, 5-year-old Paper Mansion, owned by Jagger Inc. and Longball Stables and trained by Jamie Ness, will vie for her fourth consecutive Tampa Turf Test victory and sixth overall.
Kevin Gomez is the rider on the 3-5 morning line favorite and they have drawn post four.
Paper Mansion has been assigned to carry 127 pounds, giving nine to 13 pounds to her five rivals.
Ness also has the 121-pound highweight among the males with 6-year-old American Unity, whom he owns under his Jagger banner in partnership with Morris E. Kernan, Jr.
Antonio Gallardo will ride from post and they are 7-2 on the morning line.
American Unity is one-for-three in the Tampa Turf Test with two thirds and has won six of his last nine starts.
