Gulfstream Park’s meet opens Friday
Pegasus Day, slated for Jan. 25, among prestigious events
The start of the 2019 Pegasus World Cup Invitational at Gulfstream Park. Pegasus races will be held Jan. 25.
Horse racing fans have one more thing to be thankful for this weekend: an extra day tacked on to Gulfstream Park’s championship season.
The prime winter meet, which brings top horses, trainers and jockeys to South Florida, traditionally opens on a Saturday in early December. With Thanksgiving at the latest possible date this year, Gulfstream is taking advantage of the unofficial Black Friday holiday to open a day early.
There is another significant departure from recent tradition. The opening event of the 89-day season since 2012 has been the Claiming Crown, a series of stakes for horses who could have been purchased out of a race at some point in 2018-19. Tax, who was claimed for $50,000 at Keeneland in October 2018 and went on to win the Withers and Jim Dandy, is expected to head the $200,000 Claiming Crown Jewel.
The Claiming Crown is set for Dec. 7, as part of a special events weekend doubleheader with the Caribbean Classic, races restricted to outstanding runners from Latin America, on Dec. 8.
The opening day program will not feature a stakes race. Mike Lakow, the new vice president of racing operations, said the goal is to schedule at least 10 races every day but Saturday, when he hopes to card 11 or 12. An extra race or two could be added on some Sundays.
With foal crops down precipitously and trainers preferring to space starts conservatively, racetracks around the nation, including Aqueduct and Santa Anita, are having trouble maintaining five-day agendas. However, Lakow said Gulfstream has sufficient horses on the grounds and at satellite training centers Palm Meadows and Payson Park to maintain a Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule the entire meeting.
After the first two weekends, the stakes schedule will have a familiar pattern. Pegasus Day, highlighted by a $9 million dirt race and a $7 million turf stakes, each the richest races of their kind in North America, will be Jan. 25, the Saturday between the NFL’s conference championship games and the Super Bowl.
The Pegasus dirt race is an early season target of 2019 Florida Derby winner Maximum Security, who finished first in the Kentucky Derby only to be disqualified for interference.
The 2020 Florida Derby will again be on the last Saturday of the meeting, March 28. The usual Derby steppingstones will kick off on Jan. 4 with the Mucho Macho Man, followed by the Holy Bull on Feb. 1 and the Fountain of Youth on
Feb. 29.
Dennis’s Moment, who lost all chance as the favorite in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile when he stumbled at the start, Maxfield, winner of the Kentucky Breeders’ Futurity, Tiz the Law, winner of the Champagne Stakes and likely favorite in Saturday’s Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes at Churchill Downs, and Gouvernor Morris, an impressive winner at Saratoga and second to Maxfield in the Breeders’ Futurity, are among the top 3-year-olds, who will prepare for the Triple Crown in South Florida.
The latter is trained by Todd Pletcher, who had his 15-year streak as Gulfstream’s leading trainer broken last winter. Jorge Navarro, who took the title, also is back, as is Chad Brown, who is expected to be named the Eclipse champion trainer for the fourth time in the annual ceremony at Gulfstream on Jan. 23.
Fans will notice $20 million in renovations, some of which will be works in progress during the early days of the meeting. A massive 100-feet-by-30 feet infield tote board and video screen will be unveiled and additional flat screen TV’s have been added throughout the track. The sound system also has been renovated and improved.
As always general admission and parking will be free, except on Pegasus Day, when admission prices will begin at $49. First post on all but special occasions will be 12:35 p.m.