Gulfstream opened on Wednesday to mixed reviews. Horsemen raved about the new facility (still under construction), while patrons lamented the absence of the grandstand and the minimum $10 seat price. “This is beautiful, and it’s going to get a lot more beautiful,” said trainer Bobbie Barbara. “The site and the physical plant are gorgeous. No doubt there are things to be done, but I am extremely impressed.” Less impressed was the patron who told the Blood-Horse that the new Gulfstream “is structured for a casino, not a racetrack.” Or this one, who paid for a couple of seats: “I can’t say I’m surprised they charged so much, but I was hoping for something cheaper. Would I pay this again? Maybe not.”
There won’t be much grandstand seating (cheap or otherwise) even when Gulfstream is complete. Only about 1,000 seats will be available to watch races live when the new facility is fully opened and half of those are reserved for horsemen, luxury suite owners, and the media: Everyone else will have to watch the races on TV, just as they might at another track or an OTB hundreds of miles away. Gulfstream president Scott Savin calls the setup “the new paradigm”; I call it joyless. Live racing should be live, and going to the racetrack should mean spending some time outdoors, in the fresh air, seeing thoroughbreds up close.
Related: Bill Finley misses the old Gulfstream. “Having been given a tour of the unfinished parts of the facility on Tuesday and having spent opening day at the track Wednesday, I came away longing for the old Gulfstream Park. That was a real racetrack, and a very nice one. This is a building, and a building where horse racing is merely an adjunct product.”
1/14/06 Update: Citing customer complaints, Gulfstream has dropped the $10 admission charge to the first floor clubhouse, at least until the end of January.
Posted by JC in Track Notes on 01/05/2006 @ 10:40 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
– Funny Cide makes his comeback this weekend. The six-year-old veteran will start in the Mr. Prospector Handicap at Gulfstream on Saturday. “I wanted to get a competitive race under his belt,” said trainer Barcley Tagg, “and whether he wins or loses, it shouldn’t exhaust him.”
– After a two month vacation, Lost in the Fog is back in trainer Greg Gilchrist’s barn. Gilchrist plans to train Lost in the Fog lightly this month and is considering the April 22 Golden Gate Fields Breeders’ Cup Sprint for the colt’s 2006 debut. Unlike last year, Lost in the Fog won’t be criss-crossing the country for races this year. “I don’t think he is going to take that many trips,” Gilchrist said. “If he stays sprinting, we will try to stay in California.”
– Jennie Rees has a few wishes for the new year: A Kentucky Derby winner that races past June, 10-cent superfectas at Churchill, and one racing network that allows betting on all racetracks. The last is my most fervent wish for 2006 — living in TVG land, with no hope of subscribing to HRTV, I am without both Santa Anita and Gulfstream right now, which does not make me a very happy racing fan.
– “Horse racing — having let television slip by — cannot afford to give up print media without a fight,” writes Stan Bergstein in his latest DRF column. Sorry, Mr. Bergstein, print media has already been lost (and not just to racing). The real situation the sport is facing that’s analogous to TV is the Internet, and racing is letting online opportunities slip by with barely a murmur.
Posted by JC in News on 01/05/2006 @ 10:30 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
Barbaro, “the most interesting little-known horse in the country,” won the Tropical Park Derby at Calder on Sunday by three and three-quarter lengths, bringing his record on the turf to 3-for-3. “He’s obviously a very talented horse,” said trainer Michael Matz, who’s contemplating trying the three-year-old on the dirt next. Matz has been doing well at Calder recently — Barbaro’s win was the fourth for the trainer in as many starts.
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At Santa Anita, Badge of Silver took to the turf in his debut on that surface, winning the San Gabriel Handicap on Sunday. “The race went exactly the way I thought it would,” said trainer Bobby Frankel. “I was a little concerned about the soft going, but he’s a good horse and he’s got a good turn of foot. We’ll probably stay on turf with him.” In Saturday’s La Brea, Pussycat Doll so dominated the field that trainer Bob Baffert headed to the winner’s circle when the filly passed the eighth pole. “I knew it was over…. She ran like she’d been training.”
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Trainer Mark Shuman headed into the Maryland Juvenile on Saturday wildly optimistic about Travelin Leroy’s chances in the race, and the public agreed, betting the two-year-old down to 3-5, but it was the overlooked Vegas Play trained by Grover Delp that won the stakes.
Posted by JC in Races/Results on 01/02/2006 @ 8:40 am / Follow @railbird on Twitter
