Here's a great way to kick off your 2018: a little horse racing with Triple Crown implications at "the friendliest little racetrack in North America," Tampa Bay Downs. The Downs has multiple stakes races on January 20th for the annual Skyway Festival including The Wayward Lass Stakes, The Pasco Stakes and the always popular Gasparilla Stakes.
The Wayward Lass Stakes is for fillies and mares four years old and up for the 34th running of this mile-and-a-sixteenth race. This one certainly has the potential to be a thriller if four-year-old Tapa Tapa Tapa and five-year-old Martini Glass both enter as expected. This race carries at least a $50,000 guarantee and features a total of 21 nominees in the Oldsmar neighborhood tradition.
The Pasco Stakes nomination list includes Tricks to Doo, a runaway winner back on December 16th. The Arnaud Delacour-trained horse won the Inaugural Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs by seven-and-a-quarter lengths and is among 25 newly-turned three-year-old colts and geldings nominated. The 19th edition of the seven-furlong Pasco Stakes will include a $125,000 guarantee, and previously has produced graded-states winners as Musket Man, Prospective, Dynamic Sky and Catalina Red.
The 34th Gasparilla Stakes will be contested as well, featuring popular filly Almond Roca. One of 25 females nominated, Almond Roca won the Sandpiper last month by nine-and-a-quarter lengths, and is expected to be a hot pick for the seven-furlong Gasparilla Stakes. This race also carries a $125,000 guarantee, including $75,000 from the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' & Owners' Association .
Both the Pasco Stakes and Gasparilla Stakes will play a huge role in determining futures for three-year-olds as we head towards the Kentucky Derby and the rest of the Triple Crown. A combined $300,000 in winnings will be featured during the Skway Festival and these early 2018 three stakes races are sure to be exciting to the finish.
Don't forget Tampa Bay Downs is open every day for simulcast wagering, no-limit and pot-limit poker, and golf fun and instruction at The Downs Golf Practice Facility. Be sure to check out Skyway Festival Day for the specific racing times and events!
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Photo courtesy of TampaBayDowns.com
