Gulf cancels two races due to Calder quarantine

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Gulfstream Park will run an abbreviated eight-race program on Sunday with post time for the first race set for 1:44 p.m.

The decision to cancel both the first and sixth races on Sunday's card comes in the wake of the announcement late Saturday that the Calder barn area had been quarantined after an unidentified horse stabled in barn 77 displayed symptoms of a possible neurological disorder. Original reports received from Gulfstream officials that the horse had been euthanized proved to be incorrect.

"There was some miscommunication on Saturday that led us to report the horse at Calder had been put down," Gulfstream Park president and general manager Ken Dunn said early Sunday morning.

Under the conditions of the quarantine, no horse stabled at Calder can leave the grounds. Nearly half of the 118 horses entered on Sunday's 10 race program at Gulfstream are stabled at Calder.

Gulfstream officials said they decided to leave the original post times for Sunday's card intact due to shipping and medication schedules. Many of the horses who will run Sunday van in from both Palm Meadows and Payson Park.

The afternoon's first live race, the second, will go off at it's originally scheduled post time of 1:44. There will also be approximately a one hour gap between the fifth and seventh races. The pick six and all other exotic wagers involving the two cancelled races are also canceled.

"We decided to run the remainder of the program as best we could, even with short fields, in consideration of all the horsemen who had prepared their horses to run today," said Dunn.

Dunn said that no decision regarding the Wednesday and Thursday cards at Gulfstream, both of which have already been drawn, have been made at this time. He added that Friday's program will be drawn, as usual, on Sunday.

"The test results on the horse at Calder are expected to be in by 5 p.m. on Monday so we will not make any decision regarding racing here Wednesday or Thursday until we have the results of those tests and learn whether the restrictions on the Calder barn area will still be in effect at that time," Dunn said.