Thursday Thoughts with Jason Beem for March 6, 2025

A good Thursday morning to you all! Tampa Bay Derby weekend is finally here and lucky for us, the rainy weather for the week passed through on Wednesday. A 12-race card will get going at noon (ET) Saturday and the entries are out, so it officially starts to feel real. I will call my fourth Tampa Bay Derby (G3) and the last three winners went on to capture Grade 1 races during their three year-old season.  

This year’s Derby features a seven-horse field with multiple Grade 1 winner Chancer McPatrick as the headliner. I haven’t seen the morning line yet, but I’d assume he’s made the favorite with Patch Adams as the second choice and Owen Almighty probably a close third on the line. There will be better handicappers than me at TwinSpires Edge looking at this race, so I’ll spare you my opinions, but I will share a few other horses and races I’m looking forward to on Saturday's big day. 

The Hillsborough (G2) is the undercard feature and drew a quality field of 10 for nine furlongs on turf. There is a total wildcard horse in there that I’m really excited to see. Gimme a Nother comes to Tampa Bay Downs by way of South Africa where she’s a perfect 7-for-7 in her career and has never really faced a serious challenge, her smallest margin of victory being 1 1/2 lengths. She's now trained by Graham Motion, who enjoyed success with another South African shipper Isivunguvungu. Irad Ortiz takes the mount on Gimme a Nother, which makes it even more likely she will take some money, and the real question is how her South Aftican form will transfer against rivals Saffron Moon, Spaliday, and 2024 winner Sparkle Blue. 

One horse on the undercard I’m intrigued by is a local representative is Deloraine in the Florida Oaks. She was a huge winner on turf two starts back right here at Tampa, winning by 8+ lengths in a race where she just took off in the stretch. They decided to try her in the Suncoast last time out and to her credit, she ran a decent third on the main track. Deloraine gets back to what looks like her preferred surface and even though she’s up against some really good ones in this spot, I think her best puts her right there. 

Zulu Kingdom will start out his three year-old campaign in the Columbia Stakes and for a listed stakes, this race came up super tough. A multiple graded stakes winner last year, Zulu Kingdom was one of the top choices in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf (G1), finishing seventh. He returns against several capable rivals, including stablemate Early Adopter, and I think Zulu Kingdom may be worth taking a shot against in the late Pick 5 . 

And finally, let me throw out a wild card early in Saturday's card, #3 Our Magic Princess in the second race. She gets a 10-pound bug boy on board and was absolutely trounced in her only start this season back in November. This barn started off about 0-for-40 this season, but has won five races in the past couple weeks. If Our Magic Princess can jump up like some of their other ones have been doing, she could make some noise at possibly 30-1 or higher. Fingers crossed! 

Everyone enjoy the big weekend!