Tampa Bay Downs has a few track records that are five decades old or more, but all are at the rarely-run distances of a mile and a quarter and beyond. Of the records for the most common races, the six-furlong mark is the one that has stood the test of time the longest.
Bootlegger’s Pet set the record of 1:09 flat on Jan. 26, 1974, long before Steve Crist began to incorporate hundredths in the clockings of races in The Racing Times in the early 90s. Since the achievement of Bootlegger’s Pet there have been precious few sub-1:10 clockings in Oldsmar, mainly because the more prestigious - and richer - events at the track, such as the Tampa Bay Derby and Florida Oaks, are run around two turns. Crack sprinters haven’t had the same opportunities to run for higher purses - yet.
Because there were no recordings of clockings in hundredths in the "old days," we don’t know just where Bootlegger’s Pet actually stood - at 1:09 on the button or closer to 1:09:19, the last tick before it would have become 1:09 1/5. So we can’t assess just how close Lookinforthesecret came to the record when he captured the $65,000 Pelican Stakes last Saturday. The 6-year-old son of Cimarron Secret scored by 2 1/2 lengths over He’s So Chic in 1:09:30 for the three-quarters and continued an improbable run for owner Balkrisna Sukharan and trainer Jamie Ness.
When the Florida Horse Stallion Register was published in late 2006, Lookinforthesecret was listed as just one of many winners for his sire - and the blurb read "4 wins at 3 and 4, 2006, $45,414." After the Pelican, Lookinforthesecret is 13-6- 1 in 28 starts and his earnings have reached $275,618. His record for 2007 was 8-4-0 in 13 starts with earnings of $192,580. And, one of the bonuses for his owner and trainer is that he’s equally at home on turf (12-4-3-1, $105,400) or dirt (16-9-3-0, $170,218), along with the fact that he’s at the top of his game. In his previous start on Dec. 22, Lookinforthesecret won a $23,500 allowance race by 1 1/4 lengths, racing five furlongs in 57:79, not far off the disputed track record of 57 1/5 set by Arion Fair in 1982.
Cimarron Secret stands at Cimarron Farm in Ocala for Francis (Skip) McDonnell, who is the breeder of Lookinforthesecret.