Course upgrades debut at fall meet

MIAMI – The Stronach Group is hoping to build on the success of another strong summer meeting at Gulfstream Park when action on the South Florida circuit switches to Gulfstream Park West for its eightweek meet – dubbed the Fall Turf Festival – which begins Wednesday and continues through Nov. 25.

Racing at Gulfstream Park West – formerly known as Calder Race Course – will be contested Wednesdays through Sundays, with the exception of the opening week, which also includes a live card next Monday. Grass racing is the main focus of the session, weather permitting, over a turf course that has been renovated and upgraded since the 2017 session.

There are only 10 stakes at the meet, each valued at $75,000. Eight of the stakes are for Florida-breds on Nov. 10.

“The summer meet exceeded our expectations, businesswise, and we’re hopeful that momentum will carry over across town,” said Bill Badgett, general manager at both Gulfstream Park and Gulfstream Park West.

Badgett said the Gulfstream Park West turf course has undergone some extensive renovations over the past 10 months.

“We added tons of sand and fertilizer, worked on the course the entire spring and summer, and I expect, longevity-wise, for it to last us a lot longer than it usually does,” said Badgett. “We’ll also have some of the bigger Northern stables, like Jorge Navarro and Todd Pletcher, shipping down early to participate during the fall meet.”

Wednesday’s opening-day feature is an optional-claiming race at a mile on the main course. The $47,000 race lured a field of nine topped by a pair of top 3-year-old prospects, Apostle and Belle Tapisserie. Unlike Gulfstream Park, where onemile races are decided around one turn out of a chute, one-mile events at Gulfstream Park West are contested around two turns with a relatively short run to the clubhouse turn.

Apostle, a son of Medaglia d’Oro trained by Eddie Plesa Jr., brought $900,000 as a 2-year-old at the 2017 March OBS sale. A half-brother to the Grade 3 winner and $1 millionearner Carve, Apostle has run well around two turns, having finished third in against a highly regarded field of maiden special weight opponents going 1 1/16 miles at Gulfstream Park last winter. He went to the sidelines for more than six months following that effort before coming off the bench to win his maiden at a mile on Aug. 23.

Belle Tapisserie is a big question mark returning from a sixmonth hiatus and stretching out to a mile for the first time in six career starts, all for trainer Jamie Mejia. The son of Tapizar showed no works on his form at entry time since a fourth-place finish in the Grade 3 Hutcheson on March 24. Belle Tapisserie earned Beyer Speed Figures ranging from 88 to 95 during a three-race span last winter. The top number came when he finished second in an allowance race to National Flag, who flattered the effort by returning to win the Grade 3 Bay Shore at Aqueduct five weeks later.