After being undone by unfavorable pace dynamics in three graded stakes to close out 2025, Quatrocento delivered in the Jan. 31 Tampa Bay Stakes (G3T) when racing unchallenged on the lead.
Setting comfortable fractions of :23.94, :48.70, and 1:12.97 in the 1 1/16-mile, $150,000 grass contest at Tampa Bay Downs, Quatrocento spurted away from the competition over the final five-sixteenths of the race to post an emphatic 3 3/4-length victory over Tom's Magic. The winner, pounded late to 3-5 favoritism after hovering close to his 5-2 morning-line odds in the minutes before the start, was clocked in 1:41.51 over a course rated firm despite occasional afternoon showers, topped by a final sixteenth in :05.79. He returned $3.40 to win.
"Obviously today was a good race for him. He could control the pace easy and finished strong," winning jockey Julien Leparoux told FS2 broadcaster Acacia Clement.
2025 Breeders' Stakes winner Tom's Magic, coming off a runner-up finish in the Nov. 29 Hollywood Derby (G1T) at Del Mar, rallied for second, a neck ahead of 2024 Woodbine Mile Stakes (G1T) winner Win for the Money in third.
Quatrocento's victory Saturday is his first at the stakes level and his fifth overall in 15 starts. He earned $90,000 for his Tampa Bay Stakes victory, elevating his earnings to $474,642 for owner/breeder St George Stable and trainer Fausto Gutierrez.
Quatrocento is a 5-year-old son of the Claiborne Farm stallion War Front out of the stakes-winning Tiz Wonderful mare Huasca.
Video: Tampa Bay S. (G3T)
Speed Also Reigns in Endeavour Stakes
Two races later during an unseasonably chilly afternoon of racing, Aussie Girl also proved uncatchable in the $150,000 Endeavour Stakes (G3T) for fillies and mares over the same distance on turf.
She set an even slower pace than Quatrocento, carving out splits of :24, :49.47, and 1:13.44, and kicked away from the opposition when cut loose by jockey Ben Curtis. Aussie Girl ($10.40) cruised under the wire 2 1/2 lengths in front of late-closing runner-up Candy Quest, timed in victory in 1:42.62.
"We had it won at the half-mile pole kind of thing because she picked up all around the turn and then really quickened in the stretch," Curtis explained to Clement.
Scythian ran third.
Curtis said an intention to rate Aussie Girl changed as the race unfolded, noting that few opposing riders were aggressive with their mounts. "Sometimes if you're on the best and you can get them to do it the right way, keep it simple," he said.
Woodford Thoroughbreds' Aussie Girl, trained by Will Walden, notched her first graded stakes victory in the Endeavour after earlier ungraded stakes triumphs in the Noble Damsel Stakes at Aqueduct Racetrack last fall and a minor stakes race in her native Ireland in 2023. Woodford Thoroughbreds bought her for the equivalent of $506,350 from the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in late 2023.
The Airlie Stud-bred 6-year-old daughter of Starspangledbanner out of the Galileo mare Ravissante earned her first group or graded stakes win to improve to 6-5-2 in 21 starts with earnings of $415,962.
