Florida notes: Kaplan loaded for crosstown raid on Festival of the Sun

MIAMI – You can take the trainer out of Calder, but apparently you can’t take Calder completely out of the trainer.

Case in point is Bill Kaplan, who was a longtime mainstay at Calder before relocating his entire stable to Gulfstream Park this summer. Kaplan will return to Calder on Saturday, and in a big way, having entered eight horses in the four stakes races on the Festival of the Sun program, including three each in the My Dear Girl and Frances Genter stakes.

Calder and Gulfstream are running in conflict against one another. And many big name trainers who, like Kaplan, called Calder home for decades have moved across town where the purses are bigger and racing is being conducted on a year-round basis for the first time.

“I’ve always loved the Calder racing surface and felt it was the greatest track to train 2-year-olds over,” Kaplan said. “In fact, it was a great place to train any horse, a very safe track, especially when wet, and perfect to get a horse fit on. Training at Calder was a big plus for my Eclipse Award winner Musical Romance as it was for many other Eclipse winners who were based and trained at Calder over the past five to 10 years.”

But the emergence of Gulfstream Park as a competitor in the local market this summer has changed the picture of south Florida racing.

“It’s basically a matter of money for me and all the other trainers who have moved from Calder to Gulfstream this summer,” Kaplan said. “I’ll run in stakes races over there, like I am Saturday. But the purses are just much better at Gulfstream while the competition is basically the same, at least in the summertime, anyway. You take a horse to Calder for a $5,000 claiming race and they have to win for a trainer to get the same money as he does running last in a $5,000 claimer here with the $500 per-starter bonus they pay. And Gulfstream fixed the track up this summer, so the surface is similar to Calder. It’s very safe and handles water extremely well.”

Kaplan, like his colleagues, is hoping the two tracks can settle their differences and come to some kind of agreement that would put an end to the conflict.

“I think I speak for most trainers around here when I say this situation has been a drain on south Florida racing, and I wish somehow this whole issue can be resolved, sooner rather than later,” Kaplan said.

Running the barn

Kaplan will have three of the 10 juvenile fillies entered in Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile My Dear Girl – Quinnkat, Holiday Magic, and Golden Friendships. They will try to prevent the once-beaten Scandalous Act, an easy winner of the first two legs of the filly division of the Florida Stallion Stakes, from sweeping the series.

Kaplan also will send out Putyourdreamsaway, Putitinyourpocket, and Dreamlicious in the $70,000 Frances A. Genter Stakes at a mile on turf for 3-year-old fillies; We’re All Set in the $300,000 In Reality; and Uptown Anthem in the $70,000 Tropical Park Derby for 3-year-olds on grass.

Trainer Kathleen O’Connell will try to pull off an unprecedented sweep of both divisions of the Stallion Stakes on Saturday, with Scandalous Act in the My Dear Girl and My Brown Eyed Guy in the In Reality.

Zayas makes trip across town

Edgard Zayas, the leading rider at Gulfstream Park, will spend his Saturday at Calder, having taken calls in all four stakes, three of those for trainer Manny Azpurua.

Zayas, among the leading candidates for an Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding apprentice rider, will be aboard Ayrton in the Tropical Derby, Fantastic Voyage in the My Dear Girl, and Love to Score in the Frances Genter, all for Azpurua. He also rides D N A Approved in the In Reality for trainer Stanley Gold.