Championship meet opens with three surfaces after addition of Tapeta
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With three racing surfaces to work with and an array of fresh faces set to join a trainer colony second to none during the winter season, there is little wonder why Mike Lakow, the track’s vice president of racing, is eagerly anticipating the 2021-22 Gulfstream Park Championship meeting, which opens Friday and runs through April 3.
The addition of the Tapeta course, which proved an instant success when utilized for the first time during the Gulfstream Park fall session, will give both Lakow and the horsemen plenty of extra options this winter and was a major factor in inducing a bevy of new stables to ship to South Florida for the season. Among the new stables are those of Mike Stidham, Christopher Davis, Eduardo Caramori, Jorge Duarte, Jeff Hiles, Jose Sanchez, and Tom Proctor.
Although Lakow lost more than 400 stalls with the closing of the Calder/Gulfstream Park West barn area during the spring, he has replaced the majority of those with the construction of four tents that will house nearly 350 horses at the Palm Meadows training center, located 40 miles north in Boynton Beach.
“Obviously, picking up the Tapeta is a big help, and while we lost a little stall space compared to last season, we’ve filled the ones we have with not only many new outfits but the right ones, trainers with quality horses that have come here to run,” Lakow said. “As a result, I don’t see our field sizes suffering, but I do see the quality of our cards improving. Especially considering the fact we’ve also raised purses to begin the meet – most notably in the maiden and allowance races – compared to a year ago when we weren’t quite sure what to expect when we opened due to the Covid pandemic.”
While Lakow says working with three racing surfaces will be a learning experience, he is hoping to card three races on the grass on weekdays and four, depending on the rail settings available, on weekends. The turf races will be reserved primarily for higher-quality horses, with no claiming races under $35,000 except for a couple of open $20,000 claiming races on the turf early in the meet.
As usual, the Championship meet will be highlighted by Gulfstream Park’s two marquee days: Jan. 29, featuring the $3 million Pegasus World Cup and $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf, and April 2, featuring 10 stakes, six of them graded, highlighted by the Grade 1 Florida Derby. The Florida Derby purse has been returned to its normal level of $1 million.
Two 2021 Breeders’ Cup winners are being pointed to the Pegasus World Cup, Classic winner Knicks Go, and Dirt Mile hero Life Is Good.
“It’s really something very exciting to think about, having two special horses like that in our big race, although we’re still a couple of months out from that so we have to be careful what we focus on for the moment,” Lakow said.
Todd Pletcher will be back to defend yet another training title, but could have his hands full this winter with Saffie Joseph Jr. and Mike Maker both having the quantity and quality to give the perennial leader a real fight for that crown. The jockey colony has lost a couple of stars, with Jose Ortiz opting to remain in New York and Hall of Famer John Velazquez moving his tack to Santa Anita this winter. But there is still plenty of firepower on hand in the jockeys’ room, led by Irad Ortiz Jr., who’ll be in search of his fourth consecutive Gulfstream Park riding crown.
Pulpit, Wait a While top card
Friday’s program consists of 11 races, three on dirt and four each on the Tapeta and turf courses, highlighted by a pair of $100,000 stakes for 2-year-olds on the grass, the one-mile Pulpit and the Wait a While, its filly counterpart.
Red Danger figures to be a heavy favorite in the Pulpit by virtue of his fourth-place finishing behind Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf runner-up Tiz the Bomb in the Grade 2 Bourbon at Keeneland. Trained by Brian Lynch, Red Danger was making his first start around two turns in the Bourbon. Red Danger returned to show his versatility three weeks later when easily second best behind Howling Time in the 1 1/16-mile Street Sense over the main track at Churchill Downs.
“A cutback in distance to a mile on Friday might be right in his wheelhouse,” Lynch said.
Thirteen were entered for the Pulpit, including the graded stakes-placed Biz Biz Buzz; two-time stakes winner Eldon’s Prince; promising Tampa invader Speaking Scout; and Duke of Love, who was an impressive winner of his only start, which came over the synthetic surface at Woodbine.
Mark Casse may hold the edge in the Wait a While, with Lemieux and stablemate Palmach giving the Hall of Fame trainer a strong hand. Lemieux was an easy winner of the Juvenile Fillies for Florida-breds going a mile and 70 yards over the Tapeta course on Oct. 30, while Palmach won his maiden by four lengths over the same course in his second start.
Other key contenders in the Wait a While include Lia Marina and Gun Boat, who each won a six-furlong maiden race on the grass in New York in her last start; and Sunstrike, who kept very good company earlier this season in England before joining trainer Brendan Walsh’s barn in anticipation of her U.S. debut here Friday.