In 2005, when the Hallandale, Florida track moved the date of its centerpiece event and major Kentucky Derby prep back to five weeks before May’s first Saturday, I thought it was a mistake.
They were prescient. I was wrong.
Gulfstream executives were ahead of the curve, anticipating that an extra week of rest prior to the Run for the Roses would suit most modern horsemen, today’s trainers believing that extra recovery time is what the modern American race horse needs.
For recognizing the trend, Gulfstream was rewarded when two of the next four Derby winners, ill-fated Barbaro, and Big Brown two years later, went on to win the big dance.
And being a popular stop for newly turned, Classics minded three-year-olds is good for business, too.
This year Gulfstream made another change and again I think it’s a mistake. Only this time I truly fear that I may be right.
By moving the Florida Derby up a week, from March 27 to March 20, there is now six weeks between the two derbies. Six weeks is not a bridge too far. But it’s very, very close.
The modern race horse of all ages, but especially younger ones, seem to thrive best in a five-week window. The data on this is mostly empirical, of course, and each horse is a individual.
But for trainers to hold their horses at peak another week is a real tricky deal. And the six-week time frame doesn’t allow proper spacing time for another prep, except for those late developers that might have made a late seasonal debut.
The manager of Gulfstream’s racing operations, Bernie Hettel, was quoted this week as saying that the name of the game is handle, and that the adjustment would be good for the fans, horsemen and the industry.
The one he left out is that the adjustment is good for Gulfstream, especially since corporate rival Churchill Downs, which owns Fair Grounds, moved the date of the Louisiana Derby to March 27, Gulfstream’s presumed date, five weeks in advance of the Kentucky Derby.
I won’t hazard a guess as to how Gulfstream’s Florida Derby card would have impacted Fair Grounds’ handle. But I’m not sure that wouldn’t be the case if this posit were reversed. Either way, Gulfstream probably had little choice but to react in the manner they chose.
Gulfstream is used to owning the simulcast calendar on Florida Derby day. It could not have been pleased that CDI had taken a page from their calendar. I’m sure both tracks will be examining this year’s handle results hypercritically.
Unlike other changes Gulfstream made to its Saturday stakes schedule last year that seemed to make little sense, effectively making their traditional super Saturday cards less super, changes made for 2010 will bring some of those elements back.
Of course, the Fountain of Youth will be pushed back a week to accommodate the new Florida Derby schedule, with the Spectacular Bid moved back, also, to the meet’s first Saturday.
Including the Mr. Prospector for older horses, it will be one of five sprint stakes on the January 9 program. And in keeping with a super Saturday concept, Gulfstream will host four additional graded stakes on the Florida Derby undercard.
In addition to the six-week time frame, another potential negative is that Florida-based horseman might opt out of the Florida Derby knowing that the Louisiana Derby is just around the next bend, at the same distance, for the same money.
Moving the Louisiana Derby up two weeks, increasing the purse to $750,000, and extending the distance from a mile and a sixteenth to a mile and an eighth, was a shot directly across Gulfstream’s bow.
It’s also likely that the people who run the Fair Grounds want to improve on the number of Kentucky Derby horses that successfully prep in New Orleans. Only Grindstone in 1996 and Black Gold, back in the Roaring Twenties, went on to wear the roses.
Of course, having moved the date of the Louisiana Derby made it necessary to move the Risen Star back to February 20, and the series opener, the Lecomte, back to January 23.
All this gives Kentucky Derby trainers options and those options potentially make the Derby field stronger, and that’s good for CDI’s stockholders.
Now, who was that who said the sport was incapable of working together for the common good of the industry? Please point him out to me. I’d like to buy that man a cigar.
19 Nov 2009 at 05:58 am | #
The new FL Derby date places the event squarely in no-mans land. Too far out from the Derby and too close for another prep in the minds of many horsemen. GP would have been better to return to the old mid-March schedule.
As for the concept of stacking stakes on Saturdays, this has been an absolute disaster for a facility ill-equipped to handle crowds of 10,000 or so comfortably. Handle is always lost on these days when players are shut out due to insuffificient and inadequate clerks, long waits in concession lines, etc…
19 Nov 2009 at 08:31 am | #
Hey Eric,
Funny, I thought of the old mid-March date myself. Back in the day, it was easy to make the Blkue Grass or Wood Memorial the next stop.
Have to disagree about the stacked-stakes concept, however. We’re living in a world where nine of every 10 dollars is bet away from the track.
Over the course of a racing life, I must have been to 25 or 30 Florida Derbys. But I think the knocks on the “new” Gulfstream are getting a little old.
Yes, Florida Derby day is extremely crowded and most people I run into that day are caught up in the atmosphere and don’t seem to mind. For one day I know I don’t. Thanks for your time.
JRP
19 Nov 2009 at 08:54 am | #
The knocks are a little old? Not for me. I used to make it an annual trip down there to Gulfstream. I won’t be doing that anymore. The “new” dirt and “turf” course are super but the paddock is awful. Gulfstream’s number one asset besides the racing was the weather and being able to enjoy the weather. The only place u can do that in the new Gulfstream is the narrow track apron and that corny tikihut.
19 Nov 2009 at 09:15 am | #
I’m with Freddy. Magna ruined that place. Knocking the “new” Gulfstream will never get old.
My new winter vacation is a trip to Tampa. Yankee Spring Training and a few days at Tampa Bay Downs. Cheap racing, but a real “old fashioned” track.
19 Nov 2009 at 11:09 am | #
Gentlemen,
I’m not exactly standing corrected here. But I just thought I’ve heard this so often...and it’s so unanimous! Never heard anyone praise it, in fact.
(Can I say I love sitting around that circular paddock). Yes, I know, it’s too small, and it’s…
Believe me, gentlemen, I feel your pain! But here’s the problem. Even if it were sold, I’m not sure the new owner would change the place too dramatically, given the cost, although they might consider adding some grass somewhere around the paddock area, like the old Gulfstream had--that’s if the mall construction hasn’t made that impossible.
I, too, very much like Tampa for the reasons you gave; horseplayers love old-fashioned racetracks!
Thanks gents.
JRP
29 Nov 2009 at 06:56 am | #
JP,
As you well know, I for one have seen to much of this inane idiocy as to the industry refusing to work together. ‘To many people having their own agenda as alawys! As to Gulfstream, for what it’s worth, I hated the old Gulfstream and hate the new one. They had a chance to get it right and as usual, blew it. However, there is a track, one that everyone should hope can come back one more time like the Phoenix from the dead. HIALEAH! Faint hope on my part, I agree, but what a day yesterday! If they can hold it together and in the end get t-breds, what a great shot in the arm for our sport! In turn, this brings us back to the industry and it’s refusal to work with each other. No better example then Fla. and Hialeah. Yes, Brunetti was as much to blame as the rest, but one thing still remains a fact. The “Saratoga of the South” could be ressurected! I have always advocated a one month to 5 week super meet at Hialeah centered around the traditional dates of the Flamingo and the Widner. No brainer here! Fla. in one small step could begin to lead the way in “cooperation” and save a grand lady in the process. RACING WOULD BE BETTER FOR THIS! And the people will come, just as they do to the Spa!