Gulfstream, Florida HBPA putting together bonus plan for for statebreds

Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla., and its horsemen group are expecting to add bonuses for Florida-bred horses to an array of races at the track held later this year, according to officials.

Details of the plans have not yet been hashed out, according to Tom Cannell, the president of the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, but the two groups expect to design the program to provide bonuses for Florida-breds “across-the-board.”

“We’ve got the money,” Cannell said on Friday. “We want to spend the money.”

Last year, as part of a tax and spending bill, the Florida Legislature redirected approximately $5 million in state-issued subsidies from the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association to Gulfstream Park. The FTBOA had used a portion of the money for promotions and some for purse bonuses for restricted races.

Late in February, the FTBOA said that it had decided to scrap a series of stakes races for Florida-bred 2-year-olds that had been held for decades at Gulfstream Park and would instead use the money to distribute as bonuses to owners and breeders of Florida-bred horses that won races at the track. FTBOA officials had said that Gulfstream and the FHBPA had shut them out of talks over the scheduling of the stakes races.

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Cannell said that the new bonuses would likely be distributed throughout Gulfstream’s condition books. The two sides are expected to begin the planning “in the next few weeks,” Cannell said.

“We want to try to reward the people who are here year-round, and we want to get other people out there to bring their Florida-breds to Gulfstream,” Cannell said.

The FHBPA recently signed a contract with Gulfstream that guarantees 180 days of live racing in 2026, 140 days of live racing next year, and 120 days of live racing in 2028. The agreement was reached against a backdrop in which Gulfstream’s owner is attempting to get legislation passed that would decouple the track’s racing and casino licenses, an effort opposed by the FTBOA and most horsemen.

Cannell said that Gulfstream and the FHBPA wanted to begin publicizing the effort to add money for Florida-breds in advance of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s March sale of 2-year-olds in training that begins on March 10.

“Obviously we’ve taken a hit down here with all the publicity” over the decoupling effort, Cannell said. “So we wanted to get the word out with the 2-year-old sale coming up.”

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