Gulfstream to Race This Wednesday and on Oct. 1

Gulfstream Park has added Wednesday Sept.  20 and Sunday Oct, 1 to its live racing schedule.

The races on those two days will help Gulfstream make up for some of the handle it lost when it cancelled seven race dates due to Hurricane Irma.

This Wednesday, Gulfstream will have ten races with first post of 1:15 p.m.

Gulfstream’s condition book shows eight races scheduled on Oct. 1. It is likely that Gulfstream will add more races to that card.

 None of the races listed thus far are claiming races.

Four races are overnight handicaps with $50,000 purses.  The other four races are starter stakes with $40,000 purses and are restricted to horses that have raced at least once at    or below a designated claiming price...

It is apparently a case where Gulfstream is using meet-end money from its purse account to provide opportunities to high-end allowance/optional claiming horses in the barns of trainers and owners who race year-round in South Florida.

Gulfstream is in Hallandale Beach, Fla., about 15 miles north of downtown Miami and 15 miles south of downtown Fort Lauderdale.

With Irma heading toward Florida, Gulfstream on Sept.  5 cancelled its races scheduled for Thursday Sept. 7 to  Sunday Sept. 10.

Irma caused considerably less damage in the Miami-Fort  Lauderdale  area  than what  was expected  by forecasters.

Gulfstream had what it  called minimal damage at its  facility.  But it did not hold racing last Wednesday through Friday, to  give  trainers and horses time to resume their  normal  routines.

Sunday Oct.1 will be the final day of the Gulfstream summer  meet  that began July 1.

The meet had been scheduled to  close on Saturday Sept. 30.  That day Gulfstream will have six stakes  races,  including the third  and final legs of the two divisions of  the Florida  Sire  Stakes  series.

The 40-day Gulfstream Park West meet (run by Gulfstream)  will open at Calder in Miami Gardens, Fla., on Wednesday Oct. 4.
==Jim Freer