Saturday in Tampa is one of those days when you simply take what is given, in this case a favorite that will be very difficult to beat into today’s fifth race in a restricted claimer going one mile on the Oldsmar lawn.
After dusting her rivals to break maiden at the $25,000 claiming level FEB 16, earning a career best figure, trainer John Terranova, enjoying a very successful winter here, wisely gave Tatterazzi (2-1) 47 days of recovery time. It turned out to be the good news and the bad news.
The freshening worked, but too a fault. When she returned to meet much better, allowance fillies last month, she was too fresh, pulling the rider into early contention, the kind of trip where she had little choice to chase the pace all the way around. Most often that doesn’t work, especially on grass.
Terranova is rolling the dice with this drop to a career low level but it is his last chance to race on a course over which she broke her maiden before shipping his outfit back to New York, which hopes to open Belmont Park on May 22. Negative drop or go on, take the money and run.
Check out the Tampa Bay Today Video to see if you read her last race as we did: APR 3, RACE 6. The price will be short and so we’ll play to win, no less than even money, and box an exacta with well-meant Bizness Beauty (6-1), adding Finest Jewel (4-1) and Catsoutofthebag (5-2) to the super-exotics mix.
