Allen Jerkens greeted the New Year on Friday morning watching horses train from the barn area at Gulfstream Park. It was in much the same manner he did 64 winters earlier when he paid his first visit to south Florida in 1946.
Jerkens, 80, will be busy right off the bat when Gulfstream ushers in its 2010 meet on Sunday, sending out four starters on opening day, including Le Grand Cru in the $100,000 Hal's Hope Stakes.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - For the third time in as many years, Gulfstream Park will begin a meet with a newly hired racing secretary.
Dan Bork, 40, has come from his Kentucky home to Florida for the winter, having risen to the most prestigious position yet in his 17-year career in racing. Bork follows Dave Bailey (2001-07), Bill Couch (2008), and Doug Bredar (2009) in what apparently has become a hot seat at Gulfstream, where an 80-day meet begins Sunday and where pleasing a wide variety of constituencies is not always the easiest of tasks.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Clouds of dust enveloped the entrance to the Gulfstream Park racing office one recent afternoon as heavy construction equipment readied this particular north-end area of the 250-acre property for its conversion into additional parking spots.
It was just one more mini-project among the massive renovation that has been going on at an estimated cost of $1.2 billion for more than 5 1/2 years at Gulfstream, where clouds of uncertainty loom over the 2010 meet opening Sunday.
MIAMI - Fly by Phil made his turf debut a winning one, wearing down 4-5 favorite Lost Aptitude over a yielding course to register a head decision in Friday's for 3-year-olds at Calder. The Grade 3 Tropical Park Derby is the first graded race decided in North America each year.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. - In what was most likely the final start of her career, Distorted Passion went out in style, holding off stablemate Awesome Ashley by a half-length to win Friday's at Aqueduct. It was 6 3/4 lengths back to East Breaks in third.
The victory was the fifth from 18 starts for Distorted Passion, who continued trainer Todd Pletcher's torrid winter. Pletcher, who also ran 1-2 in Thursday's Gallant Fox Handicap, has won 14 races - including five stakes - from 30 starters since Aqueduct's inner track opened Dec. 2.
Ben Creed became the first graduate of the North American Riding Academy to lead a race meet in victories when the 26-year-old apprentice ended the holiday meet Thursday at Turfway Park in Florence, Ky., with 25 winners.
The riding academy is run by Hall of Fame jockey Chris McCarron in Lexington, Ky., and Creed was among the second graduating class in May 2009.
"I'm incredibly proud of him," said McCarron.
Negotiations on a simulcasting contract between the owner of Gulfstream Park and a consortium of racetracks and simulcast sites on the Eastern Seaboard remained at a standstill on Friday, making it extremely unlikely that customers at the sites would be able to wager on Gulfstream's opening-day race card on Sunday, officials for both sides said.
Funny Feeling, a well-bred debut winner at Churchill Downs, heads a field of five 3-year-old fillies set to contest six furlongs in Sunday's $65,000 Ruthless Stakes.
A daughter of Distorted Humor out of the Grade 1 winning mare Hookedonthefeelin, Funny Feeling won her debut by 2 3/4 lengths for owner Randy Gullat and trainer Mike Maker. She ran 6 1/2 furlongs in 1:18.54 and earned a Beyer Speed Figure of 78. Funny Feeling will break from post 4 under Gabriel Saez.
Tiger's Rock, the least accomplished of trainer Todd Pletcher's trio of entrants, roared past stablemate and 4-5 favorite Nite Light just outside the eighth pole and cruised to a 4 3/4-length victory in Thursday's $72,800 Gallant Fox Handicap. Nite Light, the 2007 Gallant Fox winner, held second by a length over longshot Giant Chieftain.
