Penelope P. Miller
Tampa Bay Downs

OLDSMAR, Fla. – A crowd of 11,025 gathered at the Oldsmar oval Saturday to witness Odysseus capture the 30th running of the Grade III $300,000 Tampa Bay Derby, defeating the remaining field of six to record his first graded stakes win.   Odysseus is a Kentucky-bred son of Malibu Moon who is conditioned by Tom Albertrani for owner Padua Stables; jockey Rajiv Maragh piloted the colt to victory. 

Odysseus stalked the pace set by eventual third-place finisher Super Saver throughout the opening quarters, then battled with second-place finisher Schoolyard Dreams Super Saver throughout the stretch drive to win by a nose.  This was not the first time that Satish Sanan, owner of Padua Stables, has waited out a photo finish in the Tampa Bay Derby; in 2007, his horse Any Given Saturday lost to Street Sense by a head bob in the Oldsmar oval’s signature race.

Padua Stable’s Satish Sanan was thrilled by the win.  “I honestly thought back to the Any Given Saturday – Street Sense; I thought we’d lost again. And Rajiv (Maragh, winning jockey) just told me that he thought he was beaten. He said he would have taken a dead heat! But the guys next to us, who are local, they told me right away, “You won.” They see it every single day, and sometimes you can’t really tell, especially because he was in between the two horses. It was very hard to see, but his nose was just right there.”

Sana continued, “You know, this is his fourth race. (Rajiv) thought he got a little intimidated when the five horse (second-place finisher Schoolyard Dreams) was on his outside.” As to the Malibu Moon colt’s next stop, Sanan said, “We’re going to leave it to Tommy (Albertrani, Odysseus’s trainer), we might look at the Wood Memorial, but now we don’t have to win that. If he decides that we go straight to the Derby, well, we’re going to leave it in this guy’s (Albertrani’s) hands.”

Trainer Thomas Albertrani on his feelings on winning: “I was ecstatic. I really believed that we might have just come short by a bob. I thought he needed another jump, but that’s the way it worked out.” He said of Odysseus’s ability, “I think the sky could be the limit with this horse. He showed how he’s got such determination to win. If I used my best judgment in his first race, I probably should have run him a little longer than three-quarters, and he’d still be undefeated. He’s just a very game horse, and he’s really got a will to win.”

Albertrani said of Odysseus and the Kentucky Derby: “That’s our target, to get this horse to the Derby. We think he’s certainly good enough to belong with that group, but we’ll see how he trains in the next two weeks and make some decisions. We’ll see if we need to run him back again or just sit and wait. It takes a lot of pressure off to have the graded earnings at this point. If he had been second, we’d be forced to run him run him back again and we don’t want to squeeze him too much for the Derby if that’s the case. He’s had three races pretty close to each other, so we have to decide after we see how he comes out of this race.

Winning jockey Rajiv Maragh said of the race, “Getting past the wire I said to Jeremy (Rose, jockey of runner-up Schoolyard Dreams) ‘I think you won it Jeremy’. He thought so too. So it was a surprise when they put our number up. We got exactly the position I wanted early and like last time he relaxed for me. I wanted to wait with him and not hook anybody too soon so when we got to the far turn I asked him to move up and I thought we were in charge but suddenly a horse swept by us on the outside. I was surprised and so was the horse and he hesitated and were suddenly behind horses we might have been in front. But he showed his class and got running again. I wasn’t sure we were going find a path and then it opened up just a few yards from the finish and like I said I didn’t think we had won. He is just getting better and better!”

The Grade III $200,000 Florida Oaks for three-year-old fillies was captured by Barbara Vivian and Dominic Vittese’s  Diva Delite; the David Vivian trainee was ridden to victory by Rosemary Homeister, Jr., with C C’s Pal finishing second and Mallory Square in third. 

Winning trainer David Vivian talked about his instructions to jockey Rosemary Homeister, Jr. before the race:  “I didn’t want her that close to the pace. I told her to let her lay back; the further back you are, the better, because she’ll really come closing. I figured that that horse from Gulfstream would be setting a fast pace, but she didn’t set a fast pace. Rosie is knowledgeable enough to know that she needed to get a little closer on the backside. She rode a very good race. Not necessarily the way I wanted her to ride her, but I’m not on her back and she is.”

Vivian says that he will probably opt to rest Diva Delite after the Florida Oaks and will not pursue the Kentucky Oaks. “I think. You never know what you’re going to do. Right now I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do, but she’s run some hard races, and I’ve shipped her back and forth with two weeks apart and three weeks apart; she’s done a lot. She looks excellent, though, so I’m just going to play it by ear. See how she is in three or four weeks and we’ll see what she’ll do. I think she’s better than I think she is! She just keeps improving and improving and she goes long. And there are not too many three-year-old fillies that want to go long.”

Winning jockey Rosemary Homeister, Jr. was just beaming leaving the winners’ circle. “This is such a wonderful filly to ride. I knew she was going to be good again today; she was just so perky in the post parade and then she just waited in gate without turning a hair. She broke nicely like she always has and I took a spot behind the lead group. But the pace slowed and I was afraid of up running up on horses so took her out and asked her to wait. She wanted to go after them as we got past the half mile pole. But when I asked her to go she just went past everybody in about five strides. All I was worried about in the stretch was that something might come up inside of us but there was nothing there. What a delight it has been to ride this filly for the Vivians, who I have known all my riding life!”

The Grade III $175,000 Hillsborough Stakes was won by Phola for owners George Sauffley, J. J. Pletcher, William Robbins and William and Graydon Patterson and trainer Todd Pletcher.  The four-year-old Johannesburg filly was unhurried through the opening panels of the nine furlong turf race, swinging five wide around the final turn to draw away to win by 4 ¼ lengths. Cure For Sale (ARG) was second, and Liberally (IRE) was third.

Winning owner George Saufley said of his filly’s victory, “It feels fantastic. I knew she was going to break out sometime, but I just didn’t know when. She didn’t wait too long. It was really exciting; a beautiful race. She’s done pretty well on the soft turf, and the Pletchers have done a good job with her.”

Added co-opwner JJ Pletcher, “We’re very happy to get a stakes win under her belt. Now we’re going to move her up. I don’t know what her next start will be; I’ll have to talk to Todd (Pletcher, Phola’s trainer). We’re going to Keeneland with some horses, and then to Churchill. If he takes her over there, hopefully he’ll run her in a stake.”

Winning jockey Ramon Dominguez: said of his ride, “That was a good win for me; I got beat here a couple of weeks back on a horse (Gio Ponti) I thought would win. This filly settled nicely for me and I was pretty sure the speed would come back to us. But we were farther back than I had expected. Then when I asked for run she just flew up at the lead group and really impressed me with her run though the stretch. They told me to let her set her own pace and that she would have run at the end and she sure did.”

Trainer Jamie Ness captured the $75,000 Turf Dash for the fourth consecutive year; for the 2010 edition of the five furlong test on the lawn, the conditioner saddled both the winner, Sneaking Uponyou, as well as the second-place finisher Probation Ready. The all-Ness exacta yielded $58.80 for a $2 wager.

Sneaking Uponyou, a four-year-old Snuck In gelding owned by Jamie Ness’s Jagger, Inc. and ridden to victory by Huber Villa Gomez, won the Turf Dash by three lengths after settling off the pace through the opening fractions.

Owner/trainer Jamie Ness said of winning his fourth consecutive Turf Dash, “It feels great. I had two live horses coming into the race, and they both ran well: one-two. It feels great. They both came into the race good, and I was a little worried about the soft turf, but they both took to it fine.”

Jockey Huber Villa-Gomez said of his trip, “”Mr. Ness told me not push for the lead today. If we broke on top fine but if we didn’t just let this guy settle.  I actually expected the speed to be inside us but the outside horses out broke us so there I was waiting behind horses into the turn. When I asked him he put in a big run entering the stretch. The yielding turf didn’t bother him. He always runs his race turf, dirt and synthetics. He is a real pro!”

The 12-race card produced a co-mingled all-source Festival Day handle in excess of $10,807,264.71, the second largest amount ever recorded at the Oldsmar oval.  Vice President and General Manager Peter Berube commented, “It was a successful day all around right down to the wire on the biggest race day of our year. The weather turned in our favor, and although daylight saving forced us into a 12 race card opposed our usual 13 race Festival Day program, the afternoon proved to be a tremendous success.”

Racing resumes March 14 with an 11-race card; there is a Pick 6 carryover of $8,963 and a High Five carryover of 6,438.