Gulfstream cancels rest of card due to weather

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Because of torrential rain and flood-like conditions, Gulfstream Park was forced to cancel its Saturday card after five of 12 races were run. Racing was expected to resume Sunday.

“The rain just didn’t stop,” Gulfstream general manager P.J. Campo said in a media release. “For the safety of our customers, jockeys, horsemen, and employees, we felt it best to cancel the races for the remainder of the day.”

One of three stakes was run before the cancellation, with Devine Aida easily winning the fifth race, the Grade 3 Herecomesthebride, which was transferred from the turf to a sloppy track. Shortly after the Herecomesthebride, the fifth race, the cancellation was announced.

The Grade 2 Swale and Grade 3 Palm Beach Stakes will be run next Saturday as supporting features to the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Handicap.

DRF’s Raise Your Game handicapping contest Saturday in the Ten Palms restaurant at Gulfstream was declared no contest, with entry fees refunded and another contest to be scheduled at a later date.

Track officials were scrambling to recall the last cancellation at Gulfstream. A track spokesman recalled a day and a half being lost in 1998 because of a sinkhole on the former dirt track in the vicinity of the eighth pole, and one race was lost shortly after the new facility opened in 2006 because of a gate malfunction. Otherwise, cancellations are very rare here.

Across town, Quarter Horse racing at Hialeah Park also was canceled Saturday because of weather conditions.