Sibelius, trained by Jerry O’Dwyer, won the Pelican Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on Saturday in frontrunning fashion. The 5-year-old gelding left the gate as the 124-pound highweight in the field of 10 sprinting six furlongs and engaged in a prolonged duel with Doctor Oscar from the outset to the sixteenth pole. Sibelius, with Junior Alvarado in the saddle once again, separated himself at that point and reached the wire in front by just over a length in 1:08.3, equaling the track standard. He paid $5.20 to win.
“I was hoping for an easier time out there today,” O’Dwyer said of the Pelican. “[Sibelius] was on the lead the whole way, he got pressured the whole way and he was strong at the finish. I’m just very proud of the way he battled and held on to the wire.”
O’Dwyer is hoping that Sibelius will be invited to Dubai for the Golden Shaheen on March 25. The gelding, owned by Della Nash and Jun Park, has now won two stakes races in a row and four of his last six races.
Eoin Harty won a couple races at the Oldsmar, Fla. oval but the one he’s probably most tickled about is Groveland’s second-place finish in the Grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes for 3-year-olds. The Godolphin homebred colt by Street Sense tracked the leaders under Daniel Centeno in this mile and one-sixteenths trip over fast going but had no answer for Litigate, which rallied to deny Groveland by just over a length.
Groveland, which went off at 21-1, brought a maiden victory from four starts into the Davis. He can be expected to roll next in the Tampa Bay Derby on March 11.
Harty won the first race on the Saturday card at Tampa, a maiden special weight route, with another Godolphin homebred, Suerte, a 3-year-old gelding making its fifth career start. Tyler Gaffalione put Suerte on the lead out of the gate and kept him there to the wire, where he was three lengths the best for a $5.40 win mutuel.
Harty also sent out the winner of Friday’s eighth race there, a starter allowance route on the turf. Michael Cloonan’s Ronstadt, a 4-year-old gelding, returned to Harty after a six-race interregnum, and teamed with Pablo Morales to score by one-half length after maintaining a prominent stalking position throughout the early running. Ronstadt paid $7.40 to win.
