A field of 12 3-year-olds headed by Sole Volante (Karakontie) will compete for the winner’s share of a $400,000 purse in the 40th edition of the Grade II Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby on Saturday at Tampa Bay Downs.
The Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby is one of five stakes, four graded, on a Festival Day card offering $1-million in stakes purse money alone. It is also a “Road to the Kentucky Derby” points race, awarding qualifying points for the Run for the Roses on May 2 to the first four finishers on a 50-20-10-5 scale.
Also on Saturday’s 12-race card, which begins at 12:15 p.m., are the Grade II, $225,000 Hillsborough Stakes for fillies and mares 4-years-old-and-upward, at a mile-and-an-eighth on the turf featuring Canadian Champion Starship Jubilee; the Grade III, $200,000 Florida Oaks, for 3-year-old fillies, at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the turf; the Grade III, $100,000 Challenger Stakes, for horses 4-and-upward, at a mile-and-a-sixteenth on the main track; and the $75,000 Columbia Stakes, for 3-year-olds racing a mile on the turf.