BAUER'S BETS: FAST & FIRM at TAMPA

Today's feature is Race 5, Post time is scheduled for 2:20 PM. Three and up $25,000 claimers will spar at eight and one-half furlongs on the lawn, under NW2L conditions. Live coverage starts on Radio St Pete.com at 2:18.

SAUCY DEREK (4) is the choice, in spite of his recent dull form. This colt has been freshened since late October and has logged four local works, the last a 36. flat blow out on December 5th. He drops to face the lowest level of competition in his career and can better his Tampa record of a place and a show from three tries on the grass. He should be prominent early under Jose Batista who was aboard this one at Monmouth last summer.

THE BET  $20 to win on SAUCY DEREK (4) and a $3 exacta box with LONG LANCE (3) and FLORIDA EXPRESS (8) 3,4,8.  Total Bet $38. GOOD LUCK!!

PREVIOUS RESULTS:  12/5  Collected $44 from $72 in bets, a loss of $28. The bankroll is now $1066. 

FFlorida Tracks' Wednesday Preview

 Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs will begin their race weeks on Wednesday--both with Pick 6 and Super Hi-5 carryovers.

Conditions are Fast and Firm under clear skies with temperatures in the 60s at Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach, Fla,., and at Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Fla.

Gulfstream has a 12:26 p.m. first post for a ten-race card. The first race has a Super Hi-5 carryover of $4,585.

The Gulfstream Rainbow 6 carryover is $226,121 on races five to ten with the sequence scheduled to start at 2:36 p.m.

Tampa Bay has  nine-race card with first post of 12:20 p.m.

The Super Hi-5 carryover is $2,858 on the first race. The Ultimate Pick 6 carryover is $3,753 on races four to nine.

We will have coverage during the afternoon on this blog.

Jesus' Team, Saez and Bettors Star at Claiming

By Jim Freer

On Saturday, Gulfstream Park held the national Claiming Crown race day that included nine stakes races restricted to horses that have raced at least once at or below a designated claiming price.

Here are highlights.  We will have more details later on Sunday.

*Jesus' Team, the 2-5 favorite, beat 13-1 shot Storm Runner by three-quarters of a length in the  featured $150,000  Jewel, at 1 1/8 miles on dirt for 3-year-olds and up. 

Trainer Jose D'Angelo said he expects that Jesus' Team (pronounced hay-SOOS) will race next in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational (Grade 1) at 1 1/8 miles on dirt  at Gulfstream on Jan. 23.

Luis Saez rode Jesus' Team and five other winners on the 11-race card.

*Even without spectators at Gulfstream and thus with no betting on-track, all-sources handle for the day was $14.6 million.  

That was a record in the 22-year history of the Claiming Crown, which has been held at Gulfstream the past nine years.

The previous record was $13.9 million on the 2019 Claiming Crown, on Saturday Dec. 7. That was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 

Gulfstream was able to have spectators and on-track betting.

Last year and this year, there were eleven Claiming Crown races with Fast and Firm conditions. 

For both days, Gulfstream did not provide breakdowns of how much betting was done via Advance Deposit Wagering (ADWs) and how much was done at simulcast locations, such as racetracks and OTB offices.

Data from the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering show that on-site wagering on Gulfstream races has been falling for several years, and was about 6 percent of that track's All-Sources handle in 2019.  That mirrors handle trends at many U.S. thoroughbred tracks.

Meanwhile, several industry studies show that ADWs now make up approximately 65 percent of betting at U.S. thoroughbred tracks.

In upcoming days we will have stories about those betting trends, particularly at Gulfstream and at Tampa Bay Downs.

Cajun Embers (4) at 31-1 took the lead in deep stretch andx held off a late bid by the 3-1 favorite Reliability (2) and won by a head in Sunday's fifth race at Gulfstream Park.

The race was the start of the Rainbow 6. The carryover coming in was $ 166,907.  Bettors added $246,380 to the pool.