Firenze Fire expected back in Tampa Bay Downs' Florida Cup Sprint

Four-year-old colt Firenze Fire, a Grade 1 winner who competed in last year’s Kentucky Derby and last out finished fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile, is expected to compete in the $115,000 Florida Cup Zaxby’s Sprint on Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs.

The 17th Florida Cup Day features six $115,000 stakes races, three on dirt and three on turf, for registered Florida-breds. Official entries will be taken Thursday.

Firenze Fire, who has been working out at Palm Meadows Training Center in Boynton Beach, Fla., for his first start of 2019, is owned by his breeder Ron Lombardi’s Mr. Amore Stable and trained by Jason Servis. A son of Poseidon’s Warrior, out of My Every Wish by Langfuhr, he won the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont in 2017 as a 2-year-old, stamping himself as a Triple Crown candidate.

After a seventh-place finish in the Sentient Jet Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar, Firenze Fire won his 3-year-old debut, the Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct. He went on to finish 11th in the Kentucky Derby, returning in the summer to win the Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes at Belmont and adding the Grade 3 Gallant Bob at Parx Racing in September.

Firenze Fire has career earnings in excess of $1.1 million.

The Florida Cup Zaxby’s Sprint will be contested at a distance of 6 furlongs with expected challengers to Firenze Fire including 6-year-old gelding Extravagant Kid, a multiple-stakes winner who finished third in the 2016 Florida Cup Ocala Breeders’ Sales Sophomore, and 5-year-old horse Sweetontheladies, a multiple graded-stakes placed runner who finished second here in the Pelican Stakes on Feb. 16.

Other Florida Cup turf offerings are the DRF Bets Sophomore Turf, for 3-year-olds going a mile-and-a-sixteenth; the Pleasant Acres Stallions Distaff Turf, for fillies and mares 3-years-old-and-upward at a mile-and-a-sixteenth; and the Touch Vodka Turf Classic, for horses 4-years-old-and-upward going a mile-and-an-eighth.