Not all the Feb. 4 graded stakes action in Florida is taking place at Gulfstream Park, which stages five such races Saturday.
In Central Florida, Tampa Bay Downs hosts a pair of grade 3s worth $175,000 apiece on the grass, both at 1 1/16 miles—the Endeavour Stakes (G3T) for fillies and mares and the Tampa Bay Stakes (G3T), where an overflow field of males are entered.
The Endeavour has been won four times by trainer Chad Brown, including last year with Peter Brant's Bleecker Street, who developed into one of the top female grass routers in the country. The Tampa Bay Stakes winner of 2022, Charles Fipke's Shirl's Speight, also proved to be of high class, running second at year's end in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) at Keeneland for trainer Roger Attfield.
This year in the Endeavour, Brown starts Klaravich Stables' Marketsegmentation, a filly whose form is similar to that of Bleecker Street last year. Like that rival 12 months ago, she ventures into stakes company for the first time after three promising runs against easier competition.
A daughter of American Pharoah , Marketsegmentation won her initial start at Aqueduct Racetrack in December 2021 before going to the sidelines. Returned Sept. 30 of last year at Aqueduct, she weakened slightly to be second after taking a midstretch lead, only to unleash a more sustained finish in winning her latest at Gulfstream Park in a first-level allowance optional claimer Dec. 31 in the final start of her 3-year-old year.
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Locally-based Samy Camacho rides.
Some Gulfstream Park jockeys travel to Tampa Saturday, including Paco Lopez, Sonny Leon, and Javier Castellano.
In the Endeavour, Lopez is aboard Phipps Stable's stakes-placed Surprisingly for Shug McGaughey; Leon rides St. George Stable's stakes-winning Omixochitl for trainer Fausto Gutierrez; and Castellano is aboard La Providencia and LNJ Foxwoods' group 1 stakes-winning, grade 3-placed Scotish Star for Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher. Scotish Star won a group 1 in Argentina in 2020 before coming to the U.S.
Also of noteworthy in the Endeavour is Lael Stables' Panama Red, who makes her first U.S. start after compiling a 2-2-0 record in nine starts in Ireland. Daniel Centeno rides for trainer Arnaud Delacour.
These same connections have one of the favorites in an overdrawn Tampa Bay Stakes in Chez Pierre, who garnered attention in April for pushing his record to 5-for-5 with a swift victory in the Henry S. Clark Stakes at Laurel Park. He has not raced since.
Among the horses that he defeated in the Henry S. Clark was Three Diamonds Farm's millionaire Field Pass, who also races in Saturday's Tampa Bay Stakes.
Other contenders include graded stakes winners Mighty Heart, Verbal, and Emmanuel. Verbal and Emmanuel return from layoffs.
Lea Farms' Winfromwithin, a dead-heat fourth for trainer Jorge Delgado in the Ft. Lauderdale Stakes (G2T) at Gulfstream Park Dec. 31, returns to the Tampa lawn for the first time since winning the Columbia Stakes in his lone start over the turf course in March 2021.
Tampa Bay Downs, Saturday, February 4, 2023, Race 7Entries: Endeavour S. (G3T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Beachfront Bid (KY) Jose A. Batista 118 Thomas Albertrani 20/1 2 2Surprisingly (KY) Paco Lopez 118 Claude R. McGaughey III 8/1 3 3Panama Red (IRE) Daniel Centeno 118 Arnaud Delacour 9/2 4 4Oliviaofthedesert (KY) Pablo Morales 120 Wayne M. Catalano 6/1 5 5Ouraika (FR) Alonso Quinonez 120 Brendan P. Walsh 15/1 6 6Marketsegmentation (KY) Samy Camacho 118 Chad C. Brown 3/1 7 7Dakota Dancer (NY) Ronald Dale Allen, Jr. 118 Kevin Rice 30/1 8 8Spirit And Glory (IRE) Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr. 120 Robert N. Falcone, Jr. 6/1 9 9Omixochitl (KY) Sonny Leon 118 Fausto Gutierrez 15/1 10 10She's Gone (KY) Antonio A. Gallardo 120 Victoria H. Oliver 12/1 11 11Scotish Star (ARG) Javier Castellano 120 Todd A. Pletcher 4/1
Tampa Bay Downs, Saturday, February 4, 2023, Race 9Entries: Tampa Bay S. (G3T)
PP Horse Jockey Wgt Trainer M/L 1 1Barberini (KY) Angel Suarez 118 Arnaud Delacour 30/1 2 2Kentucky Ghost (KY) Emma-Jayne Wilson 120 Victoria H. Oliver 5/1 3 3Mighty Heart (ON) Keveh Nicholls 118 Patrick County, Jr. 15/1 4 4Winfromwithin (KY) Jose A. Batista 120 Jorge Delgado 6/1 5 5Starting Over (KY) Carlos Eduardo Rojas 118 Robert N. Falcone, Jr. 30/1 6 6Emmanuel (KY) Javier Castellano 122 Todd A. Pletcher 4/1 7 7Field Pass (MD) Sonny Leon 120 Michael J. Maker 8/1 8 8Verbal (KY) Hector Rafael Diaz, Jr. 118 Chad C. Brown 5/1 9 9Drama Chorus (FL) Alonso Quinonez 120 Tim P. Padilla 15/1 10 10Chez Pierre (FR) Daniel Centeno 118 Arnaud Delacour 3/1 11 11Dakota Gold (NY) Antonio A. Gallardo 120 Danny Gargan 30/1 12 12He'spuregold (NJ) Paco Lopez 118 Kelly J. Breen 15/1 13 13Golden Alchemist (KY) Samy Camacho 118 Chad C. Brown 10/1 14 14Creed (KY) Pablo Morales 118 Claude R. McGaughey III 15/1
