Tampabay downs media guide 16-0273-JK2

Trainer Profiles
Jason DaCosta
Born: March 12, 1944
Birthplace: Springhill, Nova Scotia
Residence: Tampa, FL
Family: Wife Mary;sons,Dale and Jerry; daughter,Katharine; two grandchildren
First win: Greenwood, Canada
Started Training: 1974
Circuit: Tampa Bay Downs, Delaware Park
Bennett, the father of Tampa Bay Downs trainer Dale Bennett, ended the nineyear
reign of Jamie Ness during the 2015-2016 meeting, capturing the Tampa
Bay Downs training title with 51 victories. Bennett tied a track record in March
by saddling four winners from four starters. Bennett, who had climbed to 18th
all-time with about 3,600 victories by midsummer, has compiled one of the most
remarkable records in the history of racing. He picked up minor stakes winner
Beau Genius after his 3-year-old season and trained him to victory in 13 stakes,
including the 1990 Philip H. Iselin (then a Grade I) and the 1990 Michigan Mile
and One-Eighth Handicap, then a Grade II. Beau Genius won the Hallandale
Handicap for Bennett at Gulfstream in 1990, a race also notable as the final
victory for Hall of Fame jockey Bill Shoemaker. Among other notable Bennett
trainees are Secret Romeo, winner of the 2002 Super Stakes and Pelican
Stakes, and Banker’s Jet, winner of seven stakes and more than $670,000.
Bennett trains Fast Flying Rumor, which established a Tampa Bay Downs
Beyer Speed Figure record of 108 in winning last season’s $100,000 Turf Dash.
Among his numerous accomplishments, Bennett has won five races in one
day. Victory No. 3,500 came at Tampa Bay Downs in March of 2015 with the
3-year-old filly Once More for Love. Bennett previously trained Standardbreds in
Canada.
Arnaud Delacour
Born: April 7, 1975
Birthplace: Lisieux, France
Residence: Elkton, MD
Family: Wife, Leigh; sons, Luca and Julien
First Win: Country Lyric, Pimlico
Started Training: 2013, Pimlico
Circuit: Tampa Bay Downs, Delaware Park, Monmouth Park, Laurel
Delacour joined an exclusive fraternity on July 30 when his 6-year-old gelding
A.P. Indian, bred and owned by Green Lantern Stables, won the Grade I Alfred
G. Vanderbilt Handicap at Saratoga. His work with the Indian Charlie offspring,
which did not make a start in stakes competition until his 5-year-old season,
includes a victory in his only start at Tampa Bay Downs. Delacour enjoyed one
of those magical days on July 9, when A.P. Indian won the Grade III Belmont
Sprint Championship. Less than 15 minutes later, the conditioner captured
the Grade III Delaware Oaks with WinStar Farm’s promising 3-year-old filly,
Dark Nile, with Oldsmar jockey Daniel Centeno in the irons. Delacour’s rapid
ascent up the training ranks picked up momentum in 2015 with Lael Stables’
3-year-old Tapit son Divining Rod, who made a strong early impression at
Tampa Bay Downs by finishing second in the Grade III, $250,000 Sam F. Davis
Stakes and third in the Grade II, $350,000 Tampa Bay Derby. In his next start,
the colt stamped himself as a Triple Crown candidate by winning the Grade
III Coolmore Lexington Stakes at Keeneland. He then overcame a pre-race
deluge to finish third in the Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes, won by eventual
Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, and added third-place efforts in the
Ohio Derby and Grade II Indiana Derby. Delacour is the husband of trainer
Leigh Delacour, who tied for 10th in the Tampa Bay Downs standings during the
2012-2013 meeting with 16 winners. After the birth of their son Luca in August
of 2012, the couple began to plan for Arnaud to take over the conditioning
duties on a full-time basis. Arnaud was fifth in last season’s Tampa Bay Downs
standings with 24 victories. The Delacours keep their horses at Fair Hill Training
Center in Maryland during the summer, enabling them to ship in to a variety of
mid-Atlantic tracks. Arnaud, who has about 70 horses in his barn, previously
worked as an assistant to Alain de Royer-Dupre in France and was an exercise
rider for Christophe Clement.
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