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
==Jim Freer
