Tampa Bay Downs: 2 turf stakes highlight Saturday races

Saturday's card at Tampa Bay Downs is highlighted by the Grade 3, $175,000 Endeavour Stakes for fillies and mares 4 years old and up and the Tampa Bay Stakes (G3) for males 4 years old and up. Both races will be contested on the turf course at 1 1/16 miles.

Chad Brown appearing to have a nice hand in his attempt to win the Endeavour for a fifth time. Brown’s entries are Saffron Moon, a 6-year-old mare who will be ridden by 2024 Eclipse Award outstanding jockey Flavien Prat, and 5-year-old Venencia, who will be ridden by leading Oldsmar jockey Samy Camacho.

Both are lightly raced horses whose form suggests they are at or near their primes, with Saffron Moon 3-for-9 lifetime and the French-bred Venencia 2-for-6. In addition to the winner’s share of the purse money, a victory would represent the first graded-stakes triumph for each horse, enhancing either’s value as a broodmare.

Another South Florida-based trainer, Christophe Clement also has two Endeavour entries, Irish-bred 4-year-old filly See You Around and Great Britain 5-year-old mare Breath Away. Eric Cancel has been named to ride See You Around, and Oldsmar jockey Hector Diaz will be on Breath Away.

Clement’s only Endeavour Stakes victory came in 2004 with Madeira Mist.

Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr., also is sending two horses north for the race. Be My Sunshine is a 5-year-old mare who has not won in her previous six starts but finished second in last year’s Endeavour to Walkathon. She will be ridden by Leonel Reyes. Joseph’s other entry, 5-year-old Libban, will have Edwin Gonzalez in the irons.

Joseph is seeking to earn his first Endeavour trophy.

Running Bee seeks Tampa Bay win in 2nd attempt

Prat, whose 2024 haul of 16 Grade 1 victories included the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Sierra Leone, the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Moira and the Pegasus World Cup Invitational Stakes (G1) on National Treasure, will ride Running Bee for Brown in the Tampa Bay Stakes, which is the ninth race Saturday. The 6-year-old Running Bee finished second in last year’s Tampa Bay Stakes to Never Explain.

Brown is seeking his first Tampa Bay Stakes triumph with Running Bee, who won the Monmouth Stakes (G3) last spring.

Perhaps the most intriguing Tampa Bay Stakes entrant is 5-year-old gelding Paros, who has won his last five starts, four on the grass. He was claimed in the second of those victories July 24 at Saratoga for $40,000 by trainer Michael Maker for current owner Paradise Farms Corp.

Paros’s most recent victory came on Dec. 14 at Turfway Park in the Prairie Bayou Stakes on an all-weather track in his first try in stakes competition. Tampa Bay Downs jockey Antonio Gallardo will attempt to add a new chapter to this horse’s climb from the high-level claiming ranks to graded-stakes winner.