Tampa: King of Diamonds Wins Turf Feature; Ten Races on Sunday

Tampa Bay Downs has a ten-race program on Sunday with first post at 12:25 p.m.

It will follow a Saturday when the high-card performance was by King of Diamonds in the eighth and feature race at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

King of Diamonds rallied from fifth place entering the stretch and then pulled away in the stretch to beat Red Zone by 1 ¼ lengths in the $22,500 allowance for 4-year-olds and up. Map Room finished third, 1 ½ lengths behind Red Zone.

King of Diamonds, ridden by Daniel Centeno, won in the solid time of 1:48.45 on the course listed as firm. He was the 5-2 second betting choice in the ten-horse field.

Red Zone was 35-1 and Map Room was the 2-1 favorite.

King of Diamonds is a 4-year-old gelding. He is a son of Iron Deputy out of the Polish Numbers mare Madame X Ski.

The victory was the second in six career starts for the homebred, who races for breeders-owners Susan and John Moore and trainer Arnaud Delacour.  He also has two second place finishes and two third places.

10 -  KING OF DIAMONDS     7.60   5.20   3.20

5 -    RED ZONE                                 26.20 11.00

2 -    MAP ROOM                                          2.80

$2 EXACTA 10-5 PAID $234.40; $1 TRIFECTA 10-5-2 PAID $367.80; $1 SUPERFECTA 10-5-2-6 PAID $4,566.70

Other Races

Centeno also won Saturday’s third race on Inaswagger.

He leads Tampa Bay jockeys with 58 victories.

Inaswagger, a 5-year-old Florida-bred gelding owned by Averill Racing and trained by Gerald Bennett, was claimed from the race by trainer Dennis Ward for his Ridenjac Racing stable.

Inaswagger beat Sandro by a neck in the 5 ½ furlong dirt claiming race. The winning time was 1:03.38 on the track listed as fast.

A pair of quality maiden special weight main-track contests added more than a dose of excitement for a sun-splashed crowd.

In the fourth race, 3-year-old colt Elusive Exchange sprinted clear to a four-and-three-quarter length victory over Tizk Tizk in a time of 1:11.69 for six furlongs.

Mike Allen rode the winner, who was making his second career start. He is owned by Endsley Oaks Farm and trained by Randall R. Russell.

In the seventh race, for maiden 3-year-old fillies, Karen Sue surged to the lead at the quarter-mile pole and extended her advantage at the finish to five-and-a-quarter lengths over runner-up Mandolin. 

Karen Sue, who finished second in her career debut three weeks ago, is a homebred racing for Florida horseman Gilbert G. Campbell’s Stonehedge, LLC.

Pablo Morales rode Karen Sue, who is trained by Kathleen O’Connell. The winner’s six-furlong time was 1:12.08.

--Jim Freer