On what is generally a quiet weekend on the graded stakes front, one of the most intriguing duels this weekend involves Fearless vs. Mighty Heart, who led the parade into Saturday’s Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday at Gulfstream Park. The 1 1/16-mile Harlan’s Holiday is the primary prep for next month’s […]
Tag: Florida horse racing
Cox Looking Ahead at Knicks Go’s Pegasus Finale with Mixed Feelings
Brad Cox looks at Knicks Go standing in his barn. Then, the trainer looks ahead at next month’s Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational with a mixture of anticipation and sadness. Anticipation at seeing the likely 2021 Horse of the Year finish his career in a $3 million race that […]
Pletcher Points Life Is Good Toward Pegasus World Cup Invitational
Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner and Eclipse Award candidate Life Is Good will open his 4-year-old season in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, a race trainer Todd Pletcher lacks on his Hall of Fame resume. Pletcher won the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational last year with Colonel Liam, […]
Gulfstream Park Ready for its Tapeta Championship Meet Close-Up
Gulfstream Park opens its Championship Meet this weekend as the first racetrack to conduct races on three surfaces: dirt, turf, and all-weather, synthetic Tapeta. And given what we saw on the Tapeta during the Florida track’s Fall Meet, horseplayers have expectations as to what they’ll see heading into the winter […]
Bring a Closer’s Mentality to Betting Gulfstream Park’s New Tapeta Track
Horseplayers seeking a trend that’s their friend can look no further than the newest course in North America: Gulfstream Park’s just-installed Tapeta track. And they need look no further at the betting window than their friendly closer. Over the first two weeks of racing on Gulfstream’s new all-weather track, closers […]
Gulfstream Park Adds New Pegasus Race to Championship Meet
Gulfstream Park added a new Grade 3 race to its 2021-22 Championship Meet stakes schedule, introducing the $500,000 Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf to its announced stakes slate. The Florida track’s primary meet in its year-round schedule opens Dec. 3 and runs through April 3, 2022. It features 76 stakes […]
Greatest Honour Chases Another Honor as Florida Derby Favorite
The only thing standing between Greatest Honour and keeping Spectacular Bid company in the history books is one of the best Kentucky Derby preps on the calendar – Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. Well, that – and the little matter of getting past 10 other horses in […]
Ortiz Helps Himself to a Six-Pack of Gulfstream Victories
Less than two weeks after picking up his third consecutive Eclipse Award as the nation’s top jockey, Irad Ortiz Jr. illustrated why he owns an Eclipse trifecta: riding six winners on Saturday’s Gulfstream Park card. Putting this into further perspective, Ortiz won half of Gulfstream’s 12-race Saturday card. “You never […]
Greatest Honour Piggy-Backs Gulfstream to Holy Bull Record Handle
As Greatest Honour joined the front row of Kentucky Derby contenders, he helped carry Gulfstream Park to a record Holy Bull handle day on Saturday. The south Florida track rolled up a total handle of $21.87 million. That surpassed last year’s total handle by 20% and blew past 2017’s previous […]
Independence Hall, Coastal Defense, Ride a Comet Grab Pegasus Invites
With Charlatan and Mucho Gusto passing up Pegasus invites, Independence Hall and Coastal Defense became the latest two invites for the Jan. 23, $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational. They’ve earned spots on the also-eligible list for the Grade 1 race. Along with that, Ride a Comet parlayed his victory […]
With Precautions, Tampa Bay Downs Open to Fans for 2020-21 Meet
With new health plans in place, Tampa Bay Downs announced Wednesday it will admit spectators for its 2020-21 winter/spring meet that begins Nov. 25, the day before Thanksgiving. This season is the track’s 95th-anniversary campaign. Headlining that campaign is the 41st Tampa Bay Derby, the track’s marquee event, and a […]
Lone Horseplayer Finds Gold with $249,204 Rainbow 6
A single bettor picked the lock of Gulfstream Park West’s 20-cent Rainbow 6 Sunday, cashing the lone winning ticket for $249,204. This followed on the heels of Gulfstream Park West’s sister track – Santa Anita Park – yielding a nearly half-million dollar Rainbow 6 last week. The Gulfstream Park West […]
Is Florida Horse Racing Booming amid Shutdown? New Races Added for April
With most horse racing canceled throughout the country in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Gulfstream Park in Florida finds itself a surprising beneficiary due to horsemen staying put in one of the few states still featuring live racing. As a result of a deeper-than-usual horse population – both in numbers […]