Sunshine Millions Preview turf stakes rescheduled

MIAMI – After a while, South Floridians tend to get used to all the rain that falls around here during the summer and into the fall. But nobody around these parts can remember a rainy season quite like the one that has plagued the local area over the past six weeks and has put quite a damper on the annual Gulfstream Park West meet, which began Oct. 3 and runs through Nov. 28.

Nobody has felt the burden of all the wet weather more than the racing department at Gulfstream Park West, specifically Mike Lakow, vice president of racing operations. Lakow has had 74 races taken off the turf through the first 31 days of the session, with the cancellation of yet another afternoon of grass racing on Wednesday. And with more rain in the forecast over the next 24 hours or so, Lakow has decided to err on the side of caution, postponing the four Florida-bred turf stakes scheduled for Saturday until the following weekend.

“The rain is getting old, no doubt about it,” Lakow said. “As far as the turf stakes we’ve moved to next weekend, I just didn’t want to end up in a situation where we had to pick and choose which ones we might be able to run had we carded them all this Saturday. Because at this point, there is a good chance the course still won’t be able to support four races by then. I really didn’t want to put the horsemen in a position of having to run over a surface they really didn’t prefer. Hopefully, the weather will break for us by next week.”

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Lakow rescheduled the Sunshine Millions Turf Preview and the Juvenile Fillies Turf to next Saturday and the Sunshine Millions Filly and Mare Turf Preview and Juvenile Turf to Sunday.

“Obviously, all this has been extremely frustrating, for both the racing office and the horsemen,” Lakow said while taking entries Wednesday for the five main-track Florida-bred stakes that will go as scheduled Saturday. “And I can’t say enough about the tremendous cooperation and participation we’ve received from all our trainers in light of the situation as well as the hard work done by our people here in the racing office.

“About the only good news coming out of all the recent rainfall could be the positive effect it might have on the Gulfstream Park turf course when we return there in a few weeks.”

The 2020-21 Championship meet opens Dec. 2.

Lakow said he’s received an overwhelming number of stall applications for the Championship session. New faces who will take stalls this winter include Brad Cox, a winner of four Breeders’ Cup races last weekend at Keeneland; Jack Sisterson, who trains for Calumet Farm; and several New York-based outfits.