Without Arlington, Gulick working hard to stay afloat in Florida
Jimmy Gulick is still grinding away. A former longtime mainstay of a Chicago racing circuit that has been decimated by the September 2021 closure of Arlington Park, Gulick now trains year-round in Ocala, Fla., overseeing a small stable of horses at the Nelson Jones training center while tending to his broodmares and layups at the nearby family farm – not to mention some chickens, beehives, and pet pigs.
“Chicago was home for many years, and in fact we still have a house in Palatine about three miles from Arlington,” said Gulick, 63. “A lot of years I’d race well into December at Hawthorne, but I’ve always come back down here. My family moved to Ocala in 1977, so I’ve always wintered in Florida.”
Gulick, a trainer since 1991, is still adding to a career win total that now stands at 482 with horses such as Poseidon’s Passion, a dominant winner of a turf-sprint allowance Jan. 11 at Tampa Bay Downs, and Novgorod the Great, one of the top contenders in the Friday feature at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.
In fact, in a span of less than a week last fall, both Poseidon’s Passion and Novgorod the Great set track records over the new Tapeta course at Gulfstream Park, where Gulick also sends horses on a regular basis to compete. Novgorod the Great got five furlongs in 55.48 seconds on Oct. 9 and Poseidon’s Passion went 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:02.60 on Oct. 15. Both marks over the surface, first used in September 2021, were subsequently erased by faster times.
Gulick is a well-rounded horseman whose tenure is threatened by how racing continues to evolve. As he breeds and buys a few of his own each year, attracting outside clients has become increasingly difficult.
“There’s kind of a double whammy going on,” he said. “A few guys are getting bigger all the time, and meanwhile the foal numbers keep dropping. Plus you’re playing the game against people where money is no object. It’s upside-down from the start.”
Nonetheless, he soldiers on. He vans his own horses – “This week I’m taking one to Gulfstream on Thursday and one to Tampa on Friday,” he said. On Monday afternoon, he was delivering feed to the farm, “and [Tuesday] I’ll be the hay guy. I don’t like to say I do it all, because my assistant for 14 years, Roberta Vigil, has been invaluable to my operation. You just do what you have to do.”
All the hard work is reflected in the racing records of horses such as Novgorod the Great. Claimed by Gulick for $15,000 out of his career debut in December 2020, the 5-year-old Kentucky-bred gelding has finished worse than third only once in 10 career tries, and that was in his latest start at Tampa when he was fourth as an odds-on favorite under the same “two other than” allowance conditions for which he’ll be competing Friday.
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“I’d like to see him run big Friday and then go back in four weeks” in the $100,000 Tampa Turf Dash on Feb. 18, he said. “For Poseidon’s Passion, I’m also looking at the filly-mare stake the same day,” the $100,000 Lightning City.
Novgorod the Great will have Daniel Centeno aboard when breaking from post 8 in an oversubscribed field in the last of nine Friday races, a $26,500 turf allowance at five furlongs. Thirteen are entered but only as many as 10 can start.
The chief opposition for Novgorod the Great could be Balistico (post 7, Pablo Morales), who actually finished ahead of him when second in their common Nov. 26 race, or Alogon (post 4, Angel Suarez), a two-back winner over the Aqueduct turf for Ned Allard.
First post is 12:32 p.m. Eastern, with the nightcap set for 4:40. One other allowance, a $25,500, first-level allowance that drew eight fillies and mares going six furlongs on the main track, directly precedes the feature as race 8. Clouds and a high of 74 are in the Oldsmar forecast.
There are no stakes the next two weekends at Tampa, with the Feb. 4 Tampa Bay and Endeavour, both Grade 3 turf routes, next up on the schedule.
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