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Bennett Living Up To His Reputation

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By BART O'CONNELL, Tribune correspondent

Published: January 19, 2008

OLDSMAR - Dale Bennett's reputation as a high-percentage winning trainer has caught on at Tampa Bay Downs.

And as such, he's been hired by some of the most influential horse owners on the TBD circuit, mainly last year's leading owner, Montesano Racing LLC, and George Steinbrenner's Kinsman Stable.

"Basically, if you keep winning, people want to be with you," Bennett said of its clientele. "I really don't know, to be honest. They've approached me."

Bennett is living up to his reputation during this meet, with 11 wins in 31 starts (35.5 percent), good for second overall at TBD. Last season he won 27.5 percent of the time; in 2005-06 it was 29 percent.

This season, Bennett is working with increasingly high-profile thoroughbreds, mainly Unfolding Wish, owned and bred by Kinsman Stable. The 3-year-old filly is unbeaten in three starts and goes for four in today's $65,000 Gasparilla Stakes, the first of two 3-year-old stakes at TBD.

Unfolding Wish has shown a lot of versatility in her victories, going wire-to-wire in her debut at Hawthorne, and most recently slipping through traffic in December's Sandpiper Stakes.

REGAINING HIS COOL: The $75,000 Pasco Stakes will be headlined by Cool Coal Man, second only to Breeders' Cup Juvenile Champion War Pass among trainer Nick Zito and owner Robert LaPenta's Kentucky Derby hopefuls this season.

The 9-5 morning-line favorite and ship-in from Palm Meadows Training Center in South Florida disappointed in his last start - a tired seventh in November's 1 1/16 -mile Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs in November. He was scratched from the Grade II Hutcheson Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 5.

Today he runs seven furlongs for the first time since his debut at Saratoga in August. Jockey Joe Bravo is coming from Gulfstream for the riding assignment.

The rest of the nine-horse field includes Honey Honey Honey, the 38-1 long-shot winner of the Inaugural Stakes, and Run Sully Run, son of 1994 Breeders' Cup Sprint Winner Cherokee Run that was runner-up in the Inaugural.

The race is considered a prep for next month's $200,000 Sam F. Davis Stakes.

AROUND THE TRACKS: Trainer Barbara McBride was named TBD Trainer of the Month following her 1,000th career win Jan. 5. The two-time national female trainer wins leader (2000-01) accomplished the feat in just 12 years as a conditioner. ... There will be no stakes race at TBD next weekend, as Gulfstream co-hosts the annual Sunshine Millions, a series of stakes at various conditions held between Florida- and California-breds. Santa Anita Race Course in Arcadia, Calif., is the other co-host. ... Derby Lane will run two qualifying races for the 24th annual Matinee Idol on Wednesday afternoon. The top four greyhounds in each race make up the final to be held Jan. 26.

Bart O'Connell can be reached at boconnell@pop.tampatrib.com.

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