Having withstood damage from two storms during the summer, Tampa Bay Downs is set to open its 2024-25 meet Wednesday.
In a span of three weeks, Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit the west coast of Florida and there was significant flooding and roof damage in the barn area at Tampa, particularly from Milton.
“We had a lot of damage, many roofs came off, lot of flooding on the backside,” said Allison Deluca, director of racing/racing secretary for the Oldsmar, Fla., track. “Maintenance did an unbelievable job getting this place back together, it was a mess. They worked 24 hours a day. We put the roofs back on, fixed all the stalls, for the most part.”
There will be 89 scheduled days of racing at Tampa from Wednesday through May 3. Opening week will consist of just Wednesday and Saturday. Friday racing begins Nov. 29, and Sundays will be added to the schedule beginning Dec. 22. There will be a special Christmas Eve card on Tuesday Dec. 24, as the track will be closed Christmas Day.
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There will be 26 stakes worth $3.81 million offered throughout the meet. Three-year-olds will get the chance to earn qualifying points for the Kentucky Derby in both the Grade 3, $250,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes on Feb. 8 and the Grade 3, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby on March 8. The March 8 program includes three other graded events. The Feb. 8 card includes the Suncoast Stakes, which offers qualifying points to the Kentucky Oaks.
Turf racing is one of the main attractions at Tampa but with rain in the forecast for Wednesday, Tampa did not take entries for turf for the nine-race program.
From a trainer perspective, there will be several new or returning faces to the backside at Tampa this winter. Among them is Jon Arnett, who in three meets prior to last year, won 73 races at Tampa. In 2022-23, his 29 wins made him the second-leading trainer behind Gerald Bennett.
This winter, Arnett will have 40 head at Tampa while his wife, Susan, will have 10 of her own. He skipped Tampa last year to stable at Delta Downs, where things didn’t go quite as well though he still won 18 races.
“We have a lot of big, heavy horses, they had trouble handling that bull ring” Arnett said. “I’m glad to be back at a mile track.”
Arnett, who comes to Tampa off being leading trainer at Prairie Meadows, wasted no time filling the entry box at Tampa as he has seven horses entered in six races on Wednesday.
Arnett’s action begins in the opener, where he starts the 3-year-old filly Soundtrack in a six-furlong maiden special weight race. Soundtrack, a daughter of Union Rags, has finished second in all three of her starts at Prairie Meadows and was a beaten odds-on choice in her last two.
“She’s still a little green, still learning, she hasn’t had a lot of races,” Arnett said. “Once this little filly figures it out, she might turn out to be something special for us.”
In race 2, a maiden $10,000 claimer, Arnett sends out Suit Me Up Charlie, a filly who went winless in four starts at a higher level at the 2023-24 Tampa meet when in the barn of John Vinson. Owner Charles Nielsen claimed the filly in March and turned her over to Arnett who raced her four times at Prairie Meadows without success.
In race 4, a $6,250 claimer, Arnett has the uncoupled entry of Whiskey Wednesday and Woke Up in Love. The latter is coming off a win for $5,000 at Hawthorne going 1 1/16 miles. The 7-year-old gelding did run well sprinting at Prairie Meadows.
In race 5, a $16,000 claimer, Arnett sends out Convalidation, who is coming off a neck defeat in an allowance at FanDuel Racing in her first start off a 10-month layoff.
“We ran her the other day. I thought we were getting a race underneath her, man she wanted to win that race,” Arnett said. “They head bobbed all the down to the wire and she got a little tired at the end. I think that layoff did her a lot of good and the guys that own her, NBS Stable, they keep 15 to 20 head with me and they always have something that can run.”
In race 6, Arnett sends out American Warrior in the featured allowance/optional-claiming race. Two starts back, American Warrior got bumped at the break and was well off the pace. After he made the lead, jockey Alexis Centeno stood up well before the finish line only to get back down and ride while prevailing by a head.
American Warrior finished third in his most recent start, where Arnett felt the jockey could have stayed on the rail but instead chose to go four wide.
Antonio Gallardo rids American Warrior from the outside post on Wednesday.
In the nightcap, Arnett sends out the 2-year-old filly Takeoff Time, who, after racing non-competitively in Iowa-bred races, lands in a $25,000 maiden claimer where she figures a longshot in a field of 12.
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