The Gasparilla Stakes

$125.000 For Three Year Old Fillies
7 furlongs – Dirt
Tampa Bay Downs – January 10, 2026

The 2026 racing season begins, and all things are possible. The slate is clean and there are twelve months of clean road ahead with a stakes schedule full of opportunities. The Gasparilla is one of the earliest opportunities to see how some of the two-year-old fillies have matured and developed into their three-year-old season. The race has drawn a field of nine and it looks like the track will be fast.

1. Patronize (D J C Racing Stables/D.E. Centeno) We start out on the rail with the biggest earner in the field. She is a neck and a head away from being a multiple graded stakes winner and has a stakes win on the resume having taken the Johnson on the grass at Saratoga last summer. Her last race was a solid fourth in the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf, but she moves back to the dirt for this. She both cuts back in distance and moves back to dirt. Broke her maiden in a dirt sprint and now tries to do it at the stakes level. 

2. Diana (D J C Racing Stables/A.S. Worrie) D J C Racing Stables second entry draws right outside of her stablemate. She hit the board in a NY bred stakes race in her last race as a two-year-old and has two wins in seven starts. Gets a class test in open stakes company. She has not broken 90 on the SRF speed figure scale and is not as accomplished as her stablemate. Wondering if she is here to provide a pace assist but is working just as well as Patronize so may be her own threat.

3. Ayita (Pan Farms/P. Morales) The only filly in the field who is triple crown nominated. Her first five starts were all at high level MSW and she hit the board in all five. She broke her maiden in that fifth start at Saratoga. Those five races show she has quality. After hitting the board in her first five starts she missed that mark in the following two races which were both routes in graded stakes. She regroups in a theoretically easier spot but her recent works don’t strike fear into the opposition. Smaller filly whose weight is less at this moment than her last start so others may have caught up development wise. Still, a return to previous form can make her a contender.

4. Noemi (Maxmillion Farm/W. Martinez) Florida girl through and through with all four previous starts coming at neighboring Gulfstream Park. She broke her maiden in her second start and then was close in two FL bred stakes. Ventures outside of State Bred competition for the first time and cuts back to seven furlongs. Tiny filly at 15 hands who has speed and I expect her to make her presence known early. Will she be around late? Acid test for sure. 

5. True To Tradition (First Flight Stable/H. VillGomez) First Flight homebred is a head away from being a stakes winner. She finished six lengths behind the filly on the rail in the Johnson in August but that was a turf route, and this is a dirt sprint. It is also of note that she ran only in blinkers in the Johnson and was immediately moved back to adds that had been more successful for her. She has not been seen since the end of November where she finished fourth in a FL bred optional claimer. Needs to show more and maybe the development from two to three will give her that. 

6. Lady Jane Grey (Big Jd Racing/A. Santos) The Lady has won one of her four starts when she broke her maiden at Monmouth Park in September. Finished off the board in her first stakes effort in the Wait A While where she led but faded late. This race is a half furlong shorter which should help her out. The big unknown is the surface. After racing exclusively on turf in her four races she moves to the dirt. Her dirt works are good enough to indicate that it probably won’t matter but until they show it in a race you don’t know for certain. 

7. Miss Comanche (Riggins Racing/J.C. Ferrer) After she was purchased privately for $40.000, she won her first two starts for Riggins Racing. She went into the G1 Frizetter with high hopes off of those two wins but finished ninth in that stakes bow. She came back at the end of October and nearly took down the CA bred Golden State Juvenile Fillies. She regressed in her follow up in the Arnaz Stakes at Del Mar, but she was working on a quick two-week turnaround in that race and has since been given a little time to regroup. The Arnaz was her third start in six weeks and has now been given six full weeks and comes in fresh off of good works. I don’t think she can be discounted. 

8. Party At The Shire (Nakamura Stables/A.A. Gallardo) Only three starts on her CV but all three of those races have seen her hit the wire first so she comes in undefeated. Yes, those races were in admittedly lower-level events, but she has beaten everyone she has been asked to beat. She comes back a little bit quickly, but she has held her weight and her works are sharp. Seems entirely plausible that she can take this next step up as she has each time to date. 

9. Risque Babe (Red Fox Farms/Sa Camacho) The most lightly raced filly in the field gets rewarded with the outside draw. She took a big step forward in her second race where she broke her maiden after being given a couple of months to develop off of her debut. She showed up in that second race with shiny new adds and won by daylight. Red Fox Farms has a 63% winning ratio in eight starts in the new year so far, so they are on fire to date and look to keep that stable form rolling with this stakes effort. This small filly is showing speed in the mornings. It’s a shame she was saddled with post nine for her first stakes appearance, but I think she is likely to be a big factor.

Patronize on the rail is the obvious choice being the most accomplished filly in the field but with so many unknowns aging from two to three and with limited races in the form of some of the field the value is probably to look elsewhere. I am going to make the undefeated Party At The Shire my top pick and I have a feeling Risque Babe on the outside has been carefully handled and is ready for this so I will make her my second choice. After that I am going to look to Patronize and Noemi to battle for the third spot. 

Categories: STAKES ARTICLES, Ungraded