Bramble Bay is probably better going long than short, although that all depends on who she’s facing. Her trainer, Mike Dini, hopes the New Jersey-bred mare caught the right spot Wednesday at Tampa Bay Downs. “I got what I want, but it all still has to work out,” Dini said. Bramble Bay, with Pablo Morales riding, is the 8-5 morning-line favorite in the Tampa feature, a $29,000 allowance going five furlongs on turf. If she reverts to a two-back effort that resulted in an 84 Beyer Speed Figure in a restricted Monmouth Park stakes, she figures to come through when facing six other fillies and mares. She’s the class of the field, with her $307,948 bankroll having been earned mostly in longer grass races. Bramble Bay and her older sister, Bramble Queen, have helped Dini, 61, reach a new career milestone of more than $1.3 million in stable earnings in 2021. “I’ve maybe had a better group overall before, but those two both have been outstanding this year,” said Dini, a trainer since 1995. The feature goes as the fifth of nine races on a card that starts at 12:20 p.m. Eastern. One other allowance (race 7), a $27,000 turf mile for 2-year-old fillies, also is part of the late pick-five sequence (races 5-9). :: DRF Bets players get free Daily Racing Form Past Performances and up to 5% weekly cashback. Click to learn more. With no rain in the local forecast throughout the week, a fast main track and firm turf can be expected. Tampa began the 2021-22 meet on Nov. 24 with a three-day schedule (Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays) but will extend to four days when Sundays are added Dec. 26. Also, racing will be held Dec. 23 to make up for Christmas Day (Dec. 25) being dark. Castanon business thriving Jesus Castanon has seen plenty of highs and lows in a riding career dating to 1989, with his first couple of weeks at the current Tampa meet being more up than down. Into Wednesday, Castanon has won six races, tied for second with Jose Ferrer behind only Samy Camacho (eight wins) atop the local standings. The latest Castanon revival coincides with his hiring of Bob Jobson as his agent. Castanon, 48, seems to have had more live mounts than in previous meets at Tampa, where he has wintered off and on for the last 20 years. “The results have been working out real well,” Castanon said. Castanon has won 2,665 races, with the best known being the 2011 Preakness with Shackleford. ◗ Strategic Bird and Cattin, winners of the first two stakes of the meet on Saturday, both are likely to return to Tampa from their Atlantic Coast bases on Jan. 15 for their next starts. Strategic Bird earned an 82 Beyer Speed Figure in winning the Sandpiper and goes next in the Gasparilla. Cattin runs next in the Pasco after getting a 79 Beyer in winning the Inaugural. A pair of seven-furlong races for Florida-breds, the City of Ocala and the Marion County, will be run Saturday as the next races on the Tampa stakes schedule. Following a five-week gap, the Gasparilla and Pasco are next. ◗ Tommy Creel, a longtime racing official who was the morning-line maker last year at Tampa, died Nov. 25 of heart failure in Rochester, N.Y. He was 64. Creel got involved in racing in his early teens in his native New England before eventually working in various capacities at numerous tracks, including Finger Lakes, Delaware Park, Suffolk Downs, and Parx Racing. ◗ Gerald Bennett, the perennial leading trainer at Tampa, begins this week two wins shy of becoming just the 14th trainer in North American racing history to win 4,000 races. Bennett notched career win No. 3,998, his first of the meet, when Grumley captured the Sunday finale.