For the out-of-towner or a snowbird down here for the first time, it won’t take long to learn that Gasparilla is an iconic time of year and a month's long celebration here in Tampa Bay. We have parties, arts and music festivals, film festivals, parades and more. We dress up as pirates and invade downtown by sea, we have races, and more parties, foot races down Bayshore Boulevard, and Thoroughbred Stakes races too! On Saturday, January 21, exactly one week before the parades, Tampa Bay Downs will host Stakes Saturday. An entire day dedicated to three horse races: The Gasparilla Stakes, the Pasco Stakes, and the Wayward Lass Stakes.
Starting at 10:00 AM and going until 6:00 PM, the Wayward Lass is the longest of the three sitting at 1 mile and 1/16. The other two races are seven furlongs(or 7/8 of a mile) long. Each race is unique in its choice of horses. Unfortunately for the boys, the only race they can run in is the Pasco Stakes if they’re three-years-old anyway. The other two are strictly girls only! The Wayward Lass is the race for the older girls, running fillies and mares four-years-old and older, and the last race, The Gasparilla Stakes is running all three-year-old fillies.
Decidedly, the races in and of themselves are great fun, and a day at the track a great way to spend a Saturday, but for the stables at Tampa Bay Downs, there is $250,000 guaranteed in winnings for the taking! $50,000 guaranteed for the Wayward Lass and $100,000 each for the Pasco Stake and the Gasparilla. They want to win, the stakes are high, and the racing is going to be fierce!
It's time to start Gasparilla 2017 on the right hoof. Come to Tampa Bay Downs, for the horses, stakes racing, and who knows, maybe you too will go home a winner!