Gulfstream Park Championship Season: Gulfstream Week 15

Tampa Bay Derby Week

It was a good week - and not just the racing! Our Florida Panthers sit atop the NHL standings; we picked up two really good players at the trade deadline and won three of four including an exciting, blow-out win on Saturday at home when Kim and I were there (with Jeff, Trista & the boys). Sunday Kim and I celebrated a belated anniversary gift to one another by going to see an amazing musical, "Moulin Rouge," one of my very favorite movies. And as to racing, I won three races on to start the week on Wednesday, three races to close the week on Sunday....swept both the featured Gulfstream stakes for the weekend.....hit my BET of the Weekend on the Tampa Bay Derby undercard AND had the Derby winner. WOW. Let's see how this week played out!

Wednesday's card started off with a maiden claiming event for a basement level $12.5K. There was only one reason to look past Reasses - the price. She'd shown speed for half vs. $35K and faded to fourth. Came back and showed speed to the wire when losing a photo for $16K. Looked way too good so you were left with betting or just watching. Tracked the 18/1 front runner to the stretch, ready to roll by but instead it was a duel to the final 200 yards before she edged clear as the prohibitive favorite.

Ran 2nd and 3rd with two more short prices in races 2 & 3 before passing to the seventh. Todd Pletcher's Refuel had been a wire winner on debut over the turf and was scheduled to do the same today against 3yo entry level allowance foes. But rains had moved all the grass races to the synthetic. Not to worry. I upped the bet - he broke on top and was quickly clear, never threatened for my second winner on the afternoon.

In the finale of an abbreviated eight-race card, it was another maiden claiming event. Of the FORTY combined Beyers of the rest of the field facing short priced favorite, Castellana, two would be good enough to challenge the LAST FOUR numbers put up by the favorite. AND Castellana was exiting a KEY race where two had already come back to score. Broke on top, pressured into the lane but when let loose was LONG gone for a third winner on the day.

Unlike the first day of racing, the next two days saw me score only once. On Thursday I ran second in four consecutive races before finishing fourth in the finale. Friday I had two thirds, a second, and an off the board finish to go with the lone winner on the day. Todd Pletcher's Artemis Sound went wire to wire. I'd already highlighted the page and marked down "WIN" when the INQUIRY / OBJECTION signs went up. Took over five minutes but finally the results stood official.

Saturday: Tampa Bay Derby Day

I've been to three Tampa Bay Derby Days and to the track on a couple of other occasions. It's a great "old school" track populated by a loyal crowd of horseplayers and fans that just appreciate live racing. Because of the early puck drop (4 pm) for the Florida Panthers game this afternoon I obviously was not going to the races. And because I wouldn't be seeing the majority of the races I only handicapped Tampa and Gulfstream. After missing with the first three - the two at Tampa went off at 7/5 and 2/5.....wow - I finally got on the board with the favorite named horse of the day, Momma Kim who was favored in R3 locally. I have to admit to being a bit concerned when as the horses were going into the gate and I was watching on FanDuel hottie handicapper Andie Biancone - who's nearly always on the mark - said, "I'm completely against Momma Kim...." and proceeded to give several legitimate reasons why she might not win. Not to be dissuaded 'Kim broke right on top and went wire to wire comfortably.

Missed on the next three, another was an oh-so-obvious favorite at Tampa with Irad Ortiz on board. Cruised into the lane at 4/5 and looked gone, only to be caught in deep stretch. So as we hit the sixth race at Tampa, at nearly 2:30 pm I was a mere one-for-six and that win had come with a minimum bet. The sixth at Tampa was the first of the stakes events, the Grade 3 Challenger going a mile and a sixteenth on the main track. Saffie Joseph's Skippylongstockings had won this race last year as the short priced favorite and certainly looked the part again. If he ran back to his third place finish in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile he would be the easiest of winners. The two that had finished in front of him that day were 2x BC champion and 2023 Horse of the Year Cody's Wish and the runner-up was National Treasure who won the Grade 1 $3 Million Pegasus World Cup in his next start. He SHOULD have been 1-9 at post time but he was allowed to float up to 3/5 odds. Tracked the longshot front runner into the far turn while in hand. Blew by without taking a deep breath and drew off by a pole under wraps. He'd been my top choice and "best" of the day. But the more I looked at him the more I was convinced he was as close to a "mortal lock" as you can get so I upped the bet to a big $50 to WIN so I cashed for $85 and suddenly despite being just two-for-seven I was ahead for the day!

Two more losses followed, both on the turf when my horses were way too far back and made little impact on the results. The eighth at Tampa was the Manatee Overnight Handicap and I thought Sterling Silver would be the easiest of winners IF she ran back to any of her six dirt tries before the last out failed turf experiment. My concern was two-fold.....first she'd not been out since November so was she ready to roll? And more worrisome, the barn showed a meager 1-for-16 record with layoff runners like this. The rider hugged the rail all the way through the far turn, got into the clear and opened up then was life and death to the wire.....PHOTO FINISH!!!

OH MY that was close, but I cashed the ticket :) At this point Jeff & his boys joined Kim and I as we piled into the car and set off for Panthers Hockey. Thursday Kim and I had once again been featured on the jumbotron when we suffered a rare home loss as Philadelphia scored with :21 left on the clock. But on Saturday we steamrolled Calgary 5-1 in a game that was great to watch!

Once we got home I opened up the recordings on the TV (as I'd recorded the rest of the races on FanDuel TV). In the undercard, co-featured listed stakes at Gulfstream the favorite never got untracked and ran a disappointing fourth. And in the Grade 3 Hillsborough on the turf at Tampa my pick was hard held towards the back in spite of glacial splits of :25 and :52 through the opening half mile. No chance to win, finished fourth at 2/1. Next on the sheet was Gulfstream's featured Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie going six and a half furlongs for older fillies and mares. Red Carpet Ready was my choice and I thought there was a chance she might even go favored despite not having been seen since disappointing in the Grade 3 Victory Ride on the Belmont undercard in early June. But handicappers much have taken the barn's 1-for-21 mark with layoff runners to heart because she was NOT the favorite. I made her my top choice because she was 4-for-6 lifetime, and prior to that June loss she'd won four in a row in dirt sprints including the Gr 3 Forward Gal here and the Gr 2 Eight Belles at Churchill on the Kentucky Derby undercard. Two sharp bullet works sealed the deal for me. She tracked the leaders on the inside to the top of the lane, swung four wide into the stretch and wore down the two front runners late to edge clear at a BIG 4/1 price. Cashed for over $50 to seal a winning day!

I fast forwarded the recording to the Tampa Bay Derby and as the horses approached the starting gate the analysts were saying, "I don't think I've ever seen a Kentucky Derby prep race run as a non-wagering event...." What are they talking about? I was able to bet on the race! My top choice was Domestic Product from the Chad Brown barn. Jockey Tyler Gaffalione tracked the leaders in fourth to the top of the stretch, joined the rush to the finish line and three of them hit the wire at nearly the same moment.....PHOTO FINISH - again. I was the winner! So now, what's up with the "non wagering" nonsense? Went to my wagering statement and despite it being hours since the race my Xpressbet account still showed I had an outstanding wager to win in the Derby. Later in the evening I discovered that there had been a "computer interface" problem and no one could wager on the Derby from about a half hour out until they ran the race. And because of this Tampa Bay cancelled the final race on the card. The next day it was announced that all wagers on the Derby were being refunded, but there were payoffs for the multi-race wagers. So I "won" and got the full $10 back.....a win is a win :)

Sunday saw Kim and I celebrating our January 3rd anniversary by going to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts to watch the live production of "Moulin Rouge" - one of my favorite movies/musicals, and then out to dinner. The performance was amazing - we so very much enjoyed the adventure and topped it off with a great meal at our favorite restaurant, Cooper's Hawk Winery. Was just a great day! Could it get any better? Well, when we got home I opened up the race replays to watch how my four bets at Gulfstream had done. In the opener Weekend Concerto burst out of the gate and in two jumps had opened up a daylight lead on the field. LONG gone.

In the second my horse started from post 12 in a two-turn turf event which made it difficult to win. But into the first turn he was forced at least ten wide and for all intents and purposes lost all chance. Finished a better than it looked fifth. Passed races 3-thru-7 which brought us to the featured stakes event of the day, the five furlong turf sprint, The Captiva Island. This event was the third of a series of turf sprints for older fillies and mares. Stone Silent had won both the other two and comfortably at that. Looked way too good for these. Was away sharply from the rail, but had to steady off heels approaching the far turn and was shuffled back to fourth. Any kind of minor issue or problem in such an abbreviated race like this is almost always the kiss of death. Now pinned on the rail she was held up and finally squeezed through at the furlong pole to get to the front in the final 100 yards and edged clear as the "best" of the day.

In the finale Paramount Prince had won nearly as much money as the rest of the field combined in 2023 and was a multiple stakes winner. But his home track was Woodbine and he'd not been seen since late November. So my thought was (a) he's the "best horse" but it seemed like this might just be a "get started" kind of race as he pointed for bigger races this summer in Toronto. Add in the layoff with the nine furlong distance and I thought he had "issues" to overcome. But he went right to the front and was never threatened to give me my third winner in four races. YES, the day COULD indeed be better :)

Next week's racing is light with no major stakes on the agenda. But I did get word that one of my horses that I'm a part owner in through MyRacehorse is slated to run in the Gulfstream opener on Saturday. The Panthers host arch-rival Tampa in a 6pm game Saturday so I'd never go for the whole day. Might try to get out there during the week - especially with Kim being gone for two days on the west coast - and then perhaps to watch my horse run Saturday. We'll see!

Social Media this week.......

The week started and ended from a social media stand point with former CBS Miami weekend anchor Karli Barnett. Wednesday I'd sent her a message saying I'd enjoyed chatting with her last Saturday and shared our upcoming travel schedule as she often has commented about our adventures. She replied back. And then Sunday evening while watching TV my phone lit up alerting me she was "live" again. I commented twice to her and she reacted genuinely interested and happy to hear from me.

Lauren Pastrana twice had on particularly good looking outfits so I reached out to her and she "liked" both posts.

Saturday morning former Gulfstream hottie handicapper Acacia Courtney posted a short video about the Tampa Bay Derby card. I reached out to her and included a photo we'd taken together. She "liked" the message :)

My most favorite former student and gal-pal Kimmy posted - a rare event - some pics from her trip to London for a special awards dinner from her business. She is so adorable and I told her so - to which she reacted :)

Amber is the first student I ever mentored in the original WISE class at Cypress Bay. She posted pics from a trip to Belize which looked amazing, so I messaged her and she replied.