Penelope Miller
Tampa Bay Downs

OLDSMAR, Fla. – Daniel Centeno has enjoyed tremendous success at the Oldsmar oval, and has begun Tampa Bay Downs’s 84th racing season with a bang, scoring 12 wins, 8 second place finishes and 1 third from  47 attempts in just 9 days of racing.  On Dec. 26’s Cotillion Festival Day Presented by Lambholm South as well as on December 30, Centeno piloted home three winners on each card.

Centeno, a 38-year-old native of Caracas, Venezuela, is no novice to the racetrack or to Tampa Bay Downs: in the 2007-2008 season, Centeno won the Tampa Bay Downs Jockey Title, booting home a record-setting 144 winners. This includes six stakes wins over the course of Tampa’s 82nd season. He amassed $2,145,528 purses, setting another Oldsmar oval record for purse money won in one meet by a jockey.  The 2008-2009 meet was another successful one for Centeno; he was once again the leading rider with 138 victories to his credit, which included his win in the 2009 edition of the Grade III Tampa Bay Derby aboard Musket Man.

Centeno started his career with horses at a very early age: his father was a jockey’s agent in Venezuela, and Centeno grew up in the racing world, spending time at the barn and building a deep relationship with horses.  Centeno began race riding in Venezuela in 1990, assembling a successful career that eventually took him to the United States in 2003.  Once stateside, Centeno began riding at Calder Race Course.  Arriving at Tampa Bay Downs in 2004, Centeno established himself by finishing tenth overall in the final jockey standings for that meet; the next year, Centeno was second leading rider at Tampa Bay Downs.  Centeno cites Cool Spell as the most notable horse he has ridden so far; and indeed, he rode the filly to a stakes-record-setting time in the Gasparilla Stakes.  The Gasparilla was the first American stakes win for Centeno, whose major influences in the racing world are Eibar Coa and Ramon Dominguez, with whom he grew up in Venezuela.  Both have gone on to become highly successful jockeys, and Centeno is quickly following in their hoof prints.

Finish Lines … Centeno solidified his place as January’s Hilton Garden Inn Jockey of the Month Wednesday by escorting three of his mounts to the Winner’s Circle. Centeno took home his first win with Timeoutforthejudge, a Matteo Pecoraro trainee carrying the colors of the Pecoraro Racing Stable. Centeno scored again with Espinosa (GB), a Danehill Dancer colt under the care of trainer Dennis Manning for owner Earle I. Mack.  Centeno rounded out his hat trick aboard Future Story, this time for conditioner Dale Bennett and owner Dyedra Kademoglou.

Racing resumes Dec. 31 with a ten race card; there is a High 5 carryover of $3,681.53.  \