Thursday, November 19, 2009
Will Tracks Ever Work Together? The Short Answer Is No
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, November 18, 2009--Whenever Gulfstream Park announces its prime time winter dates justifiably it makes news, and that’s no less so this year.
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.
Written by John Pricci
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