Jerkens staying in Florida year-round

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – There’s a new Chief in town this summer, and his name is Allen Jerkens.

Jerkens, known as “The Chief,” decided this month to stable year-round at Gulfstream Park rather than return to New York at the end of the winter season in southern Florida. He’s gone back to New York for the summer since he first came to Gulfstream in 1947.

“I missed opening day at Belmont Park for the first time in 68 years,” said Jerkens, 85, who has 10 horses stabled locally, including the multiple Grade 2-placed 3-year-old filly House Rules.

Jerkens, at 45 the youngest trainer ever elected to the Hall of Fame, said it has just gotten too hard for him to make the move from Florida to Belmont and then on to Saratoga during the summer.

“I agonized over the decision, but in the end felt I just couldn’t manage it anymore,” said Jerkens. “When you get older, you can’t do things as well as when you were young. I still may go to Saratoga this summer. I’ll see how I feel and if I have any horses worthy of taking there at the time.”

House Rules, the runner-up in both the Davona Dale and Gulfstream Park Oaks this season, will be heading to New York shortly to compete in the Acorn Stakes on the Belmont Stakes undercard June 7. She hasn’t raced since the March 29 Gulfstream Oaks.

“She galloped strong this morning, and she’s done very well since her last start,” Jerkens said Wednesday. “I’m not concerned about the time between races.”

Jerkens opted to wait for the one-mile Acorn rather than send House Rules to Churchill Downs to compete against Untapable in the Kentucky Oaks.

“I thought the distance of the Acorn was better for her, and the race would be a good prep for the other filly races later this summer at Belmont and, hopefully, if you want to look further ahead, for the Alabama,” Jerkens said. “I also felt the Oaks would be a tougher spot – at least that winner surely was. I don’t think the others in there were any better than her.”

Jerkens said he’s never spent a summer in southern Florida, so the experience will provide a new challenge to his training skills.

“It’s going to get even warmer than it is now,” he said. “You kind of have to split the difference between keeping the horses fit and wearing them out training them too hard in the heat and humidity.”

Jerkens, whose Gulfstream stakes winners over the years include Devil His Due, Sensitive Prince, Teammate, and Miss Shop, said he also was pleased to see Wicked Strong, trained by his son, Jimmy, run well for fourth in the Kentucky Derby. He believes Wicked Strong could be a major factor next month in the Belmont Stakes.

“I don’t see why he shouldn’t be a Belmont horse,” Allen Jerkens said. “Jimmy said he had a couple of cuts after the Derby, and while he was disappointed he didn’t win, was happy that his horse ran so well.”