BY TAMPA BAY DOWNS PRESS OFFICE (EDITED)
OLDSMAR, FL—Four of last year’s winners are among 117 registered Florida-bred nominees to the 22nd annual Florida Cup Day showcase scheduled for Sunday, March 30 at Tampa Bay Downs.
Six races – three apiece on the main dirt track and the turf course – will be contested for $110,000 each in purse money.
Florida Cup Day, which originated in 2003 (it was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic), sports an old-time, country fair-type atmosphere reminiscent of an era when breeders, owners, trainers and jockeys sent their best horses to compete for bragging rights, while respecting the best efforts of their competition.
All horsemen are invited to a buffet luncheon beneath the big tent adjacent to the paddock scheduled to start at 12:15 p.m. that, leaving the next 4-5 hours to focus on the on-track action.
Kathleen O’Connell, who leads all Tampa Bay Downs trainers with 40 victories this season, has nominated 12 horses to the Florida Cup, including five who are nominated for two separate races. The next-most nominees belong to Jose D’Angelo—currently second in the trainer standings at Gulfstream Park with 35 winners—has nine Florida Cup nominees including three who are double-nominated.
The quartet of 2024 Florida Cup Day winners nominated for this year’s event is headlined by the Live Oak-bred and owned 6-year-old gelding Forever Souper, a winner of nine of 19 career starts in his career with earnings of $496,467. Trainer Michael Trombetta has nominated the son of American Pharoah to the mile-and-an-eighth ESMARK Turf Classic, which he won last year in stakes-record time of 1:46.87.
Forever Souper then won three consecutive stakes races last summer before concluding his campaign with a solid fourth behind winner Wicked Django in the Grade 2 HPIbet Autumn at Woodbine on Nov. 16.
Another 2024 Florida Cup Day winner nominated to the Turf Classic is Live Oak homebred 4-year-old colt Crystal Quest, also trained by Trombetta. The son of Uncle Mo won last year’s Equistaff Sophomore Turf.
A third past Florida Cup Day champion (in 2022 and ’23) nominated to the Turf Classic is 8-year-old gelding Drama Chorus, winner of the Turf Classic both years for breeder and owner Peter D. Mattson and trainer Tim Padilla. The son of Big Drama has 10 lifetime victories and earnings of $391,725.
Treasure King and Otago, the 2022 and 2023 Equistaff Sophomore Turf winners respectively, are also nominated to the Turf Classic.
Otago, a 5-year-old son of Speightstown, is owned by Crown’s Way Racing, NBS Stable, Edward Delava and Eli Diamant and trained by Kelsey Danner. He finished fourth in last year’s Turf Classic.
The 6-year-old Treasure King, owned by Lean Entertainment LLC and trained by Victor Barboza, Jr., finished second to Turf Classic nominee Ninja Star in the Sunshine Turf at Gulfstream on Jan. 18.
C2 Racing Stable’s Mish, who won last year’s NYRABETS Sprint, has been nominated to the 6-furlong race by trainer Saffie A. Joseph, Jr., who leads the Gulfstream Park standings with 64 winners. Joseph has three horses nominated to the NYRABETS Sprint, including 7-year-old multiple-stakes winner Comedy Town, an earner of $446,663, and Classify.
Mish, for his part, has 10 lifetime victories and earnings of $588,627.
Joining Forever Souper, Crystal Quest and Mish as 2024 Florida Cup Day winners nominated to this year’s event is 4-year-old gelding Pure Class, who won last year’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomore at 7 furlongs on the main track and is nominated to the NYRABETS Sprint. Bred and owned by JoAnn and Alex Lieblong and trained by David Fawkes, Pure Class finished second in this season’s Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association Marion County Florida Sire Stakes.
Gerald Bennett, who is tied with Jamie Ness for the most Tampa Bay Downs training titles in history with nine, has six Florida Cup Day nominees, including four in the NYRABETS Sprint. That group is headed by Tropic Lightning Racing’s 4-year-old gelding Rouki, who won the $125,000 Turf Dash here on Feb. 22 sprinting five furlongs on the grass.
Return to the March 20 issue of Wire to Wire
