Tampabay downs media guide 16-0273-JK2

The Gasparilla Stakes
The $100,000 Gasparilla Stakes
Fastest Time: 1:22.41 IRISH JASPER (2014)
Slowest Time: 1:28.69 FROZEN DINNER (2001)
Longest Priced Winner: $141.40 SUAVENESS (2007)
Shortest Priced Winner: $2.80 DEVILISH LADY (2011)
Closest Winning Margin: NOSE CAVADA (1994)
CALMING SEA (1995)
Largest Winning Margin: 8 ½ Lengths ZESTY ZOE (1997)
Shortest Price Loser: $ .50 HIDDEN CREEK (2001)
Track Condition: FAST All except
SLOPPY 2001
GOOD 1996 and 2016
Richest Purse: $100,000 2012-present
R Girls a Charmer winning the Gasparilla
Other Notes: R Girls a Charmer’s owner, South Africa native Gary Barber, is the Chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and co-founder
of Spyglass Entertainment. She previously was owned by a partnership headed by Averill Racing LLC. Irish Jasper, the 2015 winner, showed her
Gasparilla victory was not a flash in the pan, winning the Belle Harbor Stakes at Aqueduct and the Grade III Adena Springs Miss Preakness Stakes
at Pimlico. As a 2-year-old, 2014 winner Nesso finished second in stakes at Del Mar and Santa Anita before competing in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile
Fillies Turf. The 2013 Gasparilla winner, Vitameta, is a daughter of Street Sense, winner of the 2007 Tampa Bay Derby (then-Grade III) and Kentucky
Derby; her broodmare sire, Grindstone, won the 1996 Kentucky Derby. Salad Girl’s 2012 victory was the first triumph in a stakes worth at least
$100,000 for jockey Angel Serpa, who was a finalist for a 2010 Eclipse Award as Outstanding Apprentice Jockey. The Gasparilla was open to older
fillies and mares prior to 1993. Never Company won three times in a row in 1984, 1985, and 1986. In 1984, the race was run at 6 furlongs. Stonehedge
Farm and trainer Kathleen O’Connell won the Gasparilla twice: in 1993 with Lindsey Lane and again in 1997 with Zesty Zoe. The Gasparilla was run
at 1 1/16 miles in 1992 and was won by My Gallant Birdie in 1:47. In 2010, Diva Delite and jockey Rosemary Homeister, Jr. used a Gasparilla victory as
a springboard to Florida Oaks glory. In 1994, Cavada also won the Suncoast Stakes and the Florida Oaks.
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