Tampa Bay Downs Sets All-Time Handle Record

(from Tampa Bay Downs news release)
Posted: 3/15/2016

A few years from now, and even further down the road, many in Saturday’s Festival Day 36 Presented by Lambholm South crowd of 10,206 will begin discussions with “I was at Tampa Bay Downs that day. …”

The memories will carry an even brighter glow if Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby winner Destin wins a Triple Crown race, or another traditional Grade I event. But the record-breaking performances by the rising 3-year-old and 5-year-old mare Tepin, whose dramatic rally in the Grade II Hillsborough Stakes also drew national attention, will stand on their own merits for a long time.

“Thoroughbred racing is a sport where everyone has their own opinion, but we heard a lot of fans in all age groups say Saturday was the greatest day in track history,” said track Vice President-General Manager Peter Berube.

“Simply attracting horses the quality of Tepin, last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile winner and Eclipse Award Champion Grass Female, and Destin, which has become a ‘now’ horse in many early Triple Crown forecasts, is a testament to the outstanding efforts of Racing Secretary Allison De Luca and her staff and our track maintenance crew for maintaining both surfaces in excellent condition,” Berube said.

“To have both races produce such thrilling finishes that resulted in stakes and track-record times was the icing on an already delicious cake.”

Although the attendance fell just outside the top-10 marks in Tampa Bay Downs history, total wagering handle of $12,250,446.88 was an all-time high, surpassing the previous standard of $10,949,948 on Festival Day 31 five years ago.

Saturday’s 12-race card generated on-track wagering handle of $815,918.20.

The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby triumph by Twin Creeks Racing Stables’ Destin, which became the first horse since Burning Roma in 2001 to win both that race and the Grade III Sam F. Davis Stakes, was achieved in a time of 1:42.82 for the mile-and-a-sixteenth. Trainer Todd Pletcher has sent out three of the last four Tampa Bay Derby winners.

Destin’s time not only bettered the stakes record set in 2007 by subsequent Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands winner Street Sense, it was .01 seconds faster than the track record established by then 6-year-old Bold Start in winning the 2010 Challenger Stakes. Also of significance, Destin’s Beyer Speed Figure of 100 was the highest this year for any 3-year-old in a two-turn race.

Robert Masterson’s Tepin, which won the Grade III Lambholm South Endeavour Stakes here four weeks ago, rallied from an 18-length deficit on the backstretch of the Hillsborough to catch Grade II winner Isabella Sings in a mile-and-an-eighth time of 1:46.26, bettering Special Envoy’s turf course mark for the distance by .29 seconds and eclipsing the stakes mark of 1:46.97 set by Zagora in 2012 (the Hillsborough was first run at a mile-and-an-eighth in 2004).

Tepin earned a 107 Beyer Speed Figure for her victory, second in the country to the 108 earned by trainer Gerald Bennett’s Fast Flying Rumor in his Turf Dash victory here on Jan. 9.

With noteworthy efforts by Grade III Florida Oaks winner Baciami Piccola and Challenger Stakes winner Adirondack King, a superb undercard and such world-class jockeys as Javier Castellano, Julien Leparoux, Irad Ortiz, Jr., and Hall of Famers Edgar Prado and John Velazquez in town for the occasion, “being at Tampa Bay Downs” for Festival Day 36 will be a talking point for a long time to come.