Gulfstream-Calder Racing Dates Truce Announced

 by Jim Freer

Saturday, July 5 - The Gulfstream-Calder racing dates battle is finally over, and thoroughbred racing is back to normal in South Florida with only one track racing at a time.

Gulfstream Park will be that track for ten of the next 12 months. Calder Casino & Race Course will have racing this October and November, with Gulfstream running that operation as part of a six-year lease agreement. 

The two tracks, just eight miles apart, raced head-to-head on weekends from last July through Sunday June 29. 

On Tuesday July 1, the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering approved the peace agreement between the two tracks and their parents.  The financial details of the transaction are not yet available. But we will attempt to find that information - and when we uncover anything we will quickly post it on this Web site. 

Details on the Gulfstream-Calder dispute and settlement and what’s ahead can be found in our July 4 Blood-Horse article http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/86007/ritvo-details-gulfstream-plans

 

Through Oct. 5, Gulfstream will have racing Thursdays to Sundays, with first post at 1:25 p.m.

Gulfstream will have its Summer Stakes Spectacular today, with five sprint stakes on its 11-race card.

 

The stakes are substitutes for the graded stakes races that were to be part of Calder’s Summit of Speed that was scheduled for July 5. Calder on June 16 cancelled the Summit of Speed in anticipation that it would not be running this July,

 

Details on today’s Gulfstream stakes are on the track’s Web site:

http://www.gulfstreampark.com/racing/race-info/news/gulfstream-park-turning-heat-fourth-july-weekend

We will have a report on those stakes races tomorrow.