Gulfstream Park on Thursday released the stakes schedule
for its 2017-2018 championship meet, highlighted by the Pegasus Invitational
(Grade 1) on Saturday Jan. 27 and the Florida Derby (Grade 1) on Saturday March
31.
Gulfstream will begin its stakes with the ten races in
the Claiming Crown on Saturday, Dec. 2—the meet’s opening day.
The Claiming Crown races are ungraded stakes, all with
purses of $100,000 or more. Those Dec. 2 races will be restricted to horses
that have raced at or below designated
claiming prices at least once since Jan. 1, 2016.
This will be the sixth straight year in which Gulfstream,
in Hallandale Beach, Fla., will hold the Claiming Crown.
The opening day card is the first of the meet’s “big day” multiple stakes Saturdays that were
major factors in the record handle that Gulfstream reported for its 2016-2017
championship meet.
G
Gulfstream’s average daily all-sources handle for that
meet was $10.0 million—up 7 percent from $9.5 million in 2015-2016.
The multiple stakes Saturdays include:
*Jan. 27 – the second running of the Pegasus will be part
of a card with eight stakes races.
The purse will be $16 million, up from $12 million, and
again making it the world’s richest horse race.
Owners of each of 12 entrants will put up $1.25 million
each. The winner will earn $9.8
million. Arrogate earned $7.0 million in
winning the 2017 Pegasus.
*Feb. 3 – The feature
will be the $350,000 Holy Bull at 1 1/16 miles on dirt for 3-year-olds. It will be the first of Gulfstream’s three
graded stakes in which the first four finishers will earn qualifying points for
the Kentucky Derby (Grade 1) at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., on May 5.
*March 3 – The feature will be the $400,000 Fountain of
Youth (Grade 2) at 1 1/16 miles on dirt. It is a Kentucky Derby points qualifying race
.
*March 31 – The 67th Florida Derby will top
the card with eight stakes races. The
Florida Derby has a $1 million purse. It
is a Kentucky Derby points qualifying race.
Three of the last five Florida Derby winners have gone on to win the 1 1/4 mile Kentucky Derby.
They are Orb (2013), Nyquist (2016) and Always Dreaming
(2017).
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HorseRacing FLA staff