We head to Tampa Bay Downs for our weekly Wednesday stop as Tampa Bay Downs will close out their nine-race card with a one-mile turf race for three-year-olds. Post time for their finale today is set for approximately 4:25 pm Eastern time.
Favored in this race is the 2 City Leader (3/1 morning line). He broke his maiden destroying an overmatched group 12 days ago. He faces winners for the first time today. But you could argue that he could be a candidate to bounce off of that performance today as it was the first time tries that he was on the board, let alone won.
The 6 Tap the Sky (9/2) challenged a heavy favorite two back on the turf but could not keep up in the end. You can toss that last race since it was taken off the turf, so look for this gelding to be up there at the end.
The 5 Summer Storm Stric (4/1 ML) had some trouble in his last race 10 days ago at Gulfstream. He got bumped around at the start of the race and made a huge move along the rail but the jockey lost the whip in the final 1/8 of the race, which coincided with the horse dropping back in the final furlong. He deserves a shot here today.
The 3 Call the Ball (12/1 ML) tries the turf for the first time and returns from a six-month break. His sire is a turf sire that you can keep an eye on, so if this horse likes the turf and the distance like I think he could, he could hit the board at a nice price.
I think that Summer Storm Stric lost all chance in a race where he and the jockey had some issues. I’m going to give him a chance here and think he wins this in a pretty wide-open race. I’ll call this 5-6-2-3, and my play is $20 to win on the 5. Good luck everyone!