Juveniles Showcased at Gulfstream Saturday

The multitudes who follow Gulfstream Park's stakes races for newly turned 3-year-olds come January will get some previews Dec. 10, when the Hallandale Beach, Fla., track holds a juvenile showcase with all 11 races for 2-year-olds.

Six of the races are stakes, each with $75,000 purse.

Gulfstream anticipates that many trainers will use the races as preps for the Jan. 7 card, when the track will begin its established series of stakes for 3-year-olds, said P.J.  Campo, the track's general manager. Campo also is vice president of racing operations for The Stronach Group, Gulfstream's parent company.

Gulfstream held an identical juvenile day, with the same names for the stakes races, Nov. 28, 2015—a Saturday that was the closing day of the Gulfstream Park West meet at Calder Casino in Miami Gardens, Fla. All-sources handle for those 11 races on a rain-free day was $5,310,465, a number that is very good for Gulfstream Park West. There were 61 starters in the six stakes races.

"We did well with the juvenile showcase at Calder, and we knew it was a day we could do better over here (at Gulfstream)," Campo said.

This year's six stakes have 64 entries, including three also-eligibles. Todd Pletcher, Mike Maker, Antonio Sano, David Fawkes, and Eddie Plesa Jr. are among prominent trainers with multiple entries. If skies are clear and races stay on the turf, the juvenile showcase could help build on some strong early numbers for the winter meet.

Through Dec. 9, the meet's first five days, daily average all-sources handle is up 9.6% and average field size is up from 9.5 to 10.4 compared with the same period in 2015-16, according to a review of Equibase charts by HorseRacingFLA.com.

Daily average all-sources handle rose from $6.15 million to $6.75 million for the five-day period. In both years, that racing was for a Saturday, Sunday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday—with 51 races.

One big difference is the weather.  In the previous meet's first five days, 25 races were scheduled for turf and 18 were moved off that surface because of rain or other wet conditions. This year, there were 24 turf races scheduled the first five days and all stayed on that surface.

Campo said Gulfstream plans to run four or five turf races per day during the current meet.