OLDSMAR - Since her horses were sidelined for seven racing days in December, Tampa Bay Downs trainer Kathleen O’Connell has been making up for lost time.

    O’Connell sent out four winners on Jan. 2, tying a track record she established in 2003. It is shared by Gerald Bennett (three times), Jamie Ness (twice) and Chad Brown. That performance was instrumental in O’Connell earning the Martin’s Italian Trainer of the Month Award.

    It also kindled hopes for a third consecutive Oldsmar training crown and fifth overall for O’Connell, who first won the title in 1998-99 and captured it again in 2009-10, tying with Ness. O’Connell has nine victories, trailing Juan Carlos Avila (18), Juan Arriagada (13) and Bennett (12).

    More on O’Connell in a moment. With $817,003 funneled into today’s late Pick 5 carryover pool, the potential for a huge payoff seemed likely, and victories in the first two legs by 17-1 and 20-1 shots seemed to assure it. At the end of the card, the winning 4-11-10-6-2 combination paid $21,765 apiece to 35 lucky ticket holders.

\    The Ultimate 6 was also hit, with one bettor correctly selecting the winners of the final six races – the old 8-4-11-10-6-2 combination – to the tune of $33,093.

    Back to O’Connell, one of the track’s most popular trainers due as much to her humility as her winning ways. “Four in a day doesn’t happen too often,” she said Wednesday from Gulfstream Park, where she is overseeing her south Florida string this week. “We felt they were all in good spots and drew good post positions, but you still need to get a good trip to win.
“I’m very happy for everyone in our crew and the owners – it was very hard for them to watch races their horses were supposed to run in.”

    Her record-tying afternoon began when the 5-year-old mare Fullmoonmagic won the first race for owner Joseph Capriglione, with Sonny Leon in the saddle. O’Connell and Leon teamed to win the sixth race with Stonehedge-bred and owned 3-year-old filly Justamomentplease, who was claimed from the race for $16,000 by trainer Ralph N. Baez.

    O’Connell added the eighth race with DiBello Racing homebred 6-year-old mare Princess Britni, ridden by Jose Ferrer, and the ninth on the turf with Katies a Lady, a 7-year-old mare owned by Double D Stable and ridden by Ademar Santos.

    O’Connell’s barn was one of two sidelined last month by a quarantine imposed after a horse was confirmed to have the neurological form of EHV-1 (Equine Herpesvirus Type 1), which is highly contagious. No other horse on the grounds tested positive or displayed any signs of having the virus.

    Tampa Bay Downs established numerous safety measures to keep the virus from spreading, including requiring workers at both barns to wear protective footwear and clothing and adopting a temporary training schedule for the affected barns – after the rest of the track’s horse population had already been out and galloped or breezed.

    “It was a very tough thing to go through, but everyone on our team pulled together and did a great job. It was a total group effort,” O’Connell said. “Horses are creatures of habit who want structure and routine, and we had to break that up and go to a different routine that was hard on everybody, including the horses. I am a firm believer in schooling a horse at the starting gate and we didn’t have gate-schooling for 21 days, so everything needed to be revamped and we did the best that we could.”

    On Sundays during the quarantine, when there was no racing, the track maintenance department dragged the racetrack after horses from other barns had worked to provide O’Connell’s horses a smooth surface. O’Connell cited that as one example of track officials working closely with her to ensure she could keep her horses as race-ready as possible.

    “I thought they did a great job of accommodating our needs wherever possible,” she said. “Everybody worked together and tried to do things in a safe manner while helping us with what we needed to get back into action.”

    That is when O’Connell and her charges are at their best. Since joining the training ranks in 1981, she has sent out 2,606 career winners, briefly holding the No. 1 spot all-time among North American female trainers in 2023 before being passed by Linda Rice. O’Connell’s national profile skyrocketed in 2015 as the trainer of exciting 3-year-old filly Lady Shipman, who finished second by a neck to Mongolian Saturday in the TwinSpires Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland after winning six stakes and setting two course records.

    O’Connell has also trained the likes of 2011 Gr. II Tampa Bay Derby winner Watch Me Go, her lone Kentucky Derby starter; Blazing Sword, a winner of three graded stakes from 1997-2000; 2019 Gr. III Sam F. Davis Stakes winner Well Defined; Stormy Embrace, winner of back-to-back runnings of the Gr. II Princess Rooney Stakes in 2018-19; and Ivanavinalot, who won the Gr. II Bonnie Miss Stakes in 2003 and is the dam of Hall of Fame member Songbird.

    OLDSMAR - After jockey Vernon Bush fractured his back in three places and broke a rib last August when his mount flipped over in the post parade at Belterra Park, some relatives and close friends began planning a retirement party.

    But the 64-year-old Bush, who began riding in 1978 at River Downs in Ohio, asked them to hold off until he got to Tampa Bay Downs and won one more race. “I wanted to go out on top and be able to hold my head high and say I did it my way. There is no better way to go out than on a winner,” Bush said Thursday, still savoring his victory on 18-1 shot Protest in Wednesday’s seventh race, a 7-furlong maiden claiming event.

    Bush had ridden the (now)-6-year-old gelding to a decent fourth-place finish on Dec. 31 for owner Carla March and her husband, trainer William March. “He made a good run and got a little tired, but I knew he had to improve off that race,” Bush said. “When I got to the winner’s circle, Bill March told me ‘I knew you were going to do this.’ ”

    For Bush and the Marches, Protest’s victory brought things full circle. Bush had won numerous races for the couple on their horse Well Connected, including a starter/optional claiming race for them two years ago at Tampa Bay Downs.

    Bush, the brother of Midwest trainer George Bush, retires with 3,288 career victories and total purse earnings of $25,212,469. Best known for his success in New England, he won six riding titles at Suffolk Downs in Boston and four at Rockingham Park in New Hampshire. He rode six winners on a card at both Suffolk and Northampton Fair in Massachusetts.

    Among almost a half-century of racing-related memories, Bush also notes a piece of trivia: He was moved up from third to first in two separate races when the top two finishers were both disqualified.

    “I’ve ridden so many nice horses through my career. I won stakes at Rockingham, Suffolk, all the Ohio tracks and New Jersey. I’ve won races at almost every track on the East Coast and the Atlantic Seaboard from Saratoga to Gulfstream and Hialeah. I’ve been very lucky and had a very good career,” said Bush, whose late father Vernon Bush was also a jockey.

    Bush did not ride from the summer of 2018 until March of 2022 due to a broken femur, a broken ankle and two hip surgeries, including a hip replacement. He worked at Belterra Park as a jockeys’ room supervisor and entry-taker in 2019 and 2020 before his love for racing inspired him to return to the saddle.

    Bush rode 47 winners after his comeback. He was honored three years ago with the Randy Romero Pure Courage Award, given to a jockey who has overcome serious injuries and/or adversity. Romero, a member of the sport’s Hall of Fame who died in 2019, incurred an abundance of racing-related injuries, requiring more than 20 surgeries.

    “I’m honored just to have my name next to his on something, and I hope it gives other people inspiration that they can overcome things in their life and go forward. Anything can be achieved when you put your mind to it,” Bush said.

    Bush created another lifetime memory last August, shortly before he was injured. He had found a saddle used at least 40 years earlier by jockey Al Herrera, the father of Bush’s close friend Marilee. Bush cleaned and polished the saddle and used it to ride 5-year-old mare Whiskey Diamond – owned and trained by George Bush, his brother – to an 18-length victory in a claiming race at Belterra Park.

    Bush plans to continue to exercise horses in the mornings (he was on four Wednesday). He hopes to continue working in the industry, possibly as a racing-office employee, and may try to become accredited as a steward.

    Wherever he winds up, Bush will be forgiven for occasionally reflecting on the thrills, the big wins, the occasional setbacks and the friendships he has made throughout his career.

    “It’s that time for me. I have to step away. I know I can still ride a race and not interfere with a horse, but I’d rather go out on top than ride a lot of races not knowing if I would win again. I can say that I enjoyed every moment of my career and I’m happy the way it ended,” he said.