by T.D. Thornton
For between 225 and 250 horses stabled beyond the deadline of their lease inside a fenced-in, soon-to-be construction site at Calder Casino & Race Course, Friday dawned with parent company Churchill Downs Incorporated following through on its threat to seal off the road between the former main barn area and racetrack.
“They cut off access to training,” said trainer Edwin Broome, who has a stable of 14 trapped behind the fence. “It's affecting my mind. My stomach. It's affecting everything. If I'm not able to train, then I'm dead.”
According to Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association president Phil Combest, the standoff is the result of a six-month lease on the main barn area coming to an end without backup plans in place to find stabling for as many as 600 horses that had been living there. So far, about 350 horses have either left the grounds or been relocated elsewhere on the property. Up to 200 of them have been moved to temporary tent stalls.
Combest said Calder horses were allowed to ship out for racing at Gulfstream Park Friday, but he described the vanning process as “laborious” and “very difficult” because of the blocked access roads.
“Everybody got a bath and walked [Friday], that was it,” Broome said. “Later in the day we found out there is a way all the other way down the other end that you can get out and go to the track. There's an opening where cars go through. So that's our plan for [Saturday], we're going to be training that way.”
According to Combest, no horsemen in the fenced-in area have been served with a formal eviction or trespassing notice, but he fears something like that is coming within the next 48 hours.
A Gulfstream racing official told Combest that a meeting was to have taken place Friday between Gulfstream executives and a CDI attorney to see if an agreement could be reached on the impasse.
Combest said the FHBPA was not a party to that meeting, but that the FHBPA board met separately to discuss, among other options, whether denying the Gulfstream simulcast signal to CDI could be used as leverage.
“That certainly has come up for discussion,” Combest added. “But the board met, and we haven't really made any future movement on that, or if [denying the signal will happen] at all.”
Executives at both CDI's Louisville headquarters and at Calder have not responded to multiple phone calls and emails over the past 72 hours requesting comment.
Combest characterized the fenced-in horses as victims caught between the corporate squabbling of two rival gaming companies.
When Gulfstream entered into an agreement to lease Calder for racing and training last July, Combest said he was assured on multiple occasions by Gulfstream that it would make sure south Florida's horse population would be adequately stabled with access to training while Gulfstream built new barns (scheduled to be ready in February).
Since then, negotiations on a lease extension at Calder have fallen through. Gulfstream's solution said Combest has been to erect tents in a Calder parking lot (in an area where a separate stabling lease is still valid). Combest said that although he appreciates the effort, he has serious safety concerns about housing horses in tent stalls.
The main Gulfstream stable area and the track's Palm Meadows Training Center are both reportedly full. The main stable area of 60 barns at Calder appears as if it is being staged for construction, but CDI officials have repeatedly refused to comment on what might be built there and when.
“There is no room anywhere they tell us, ” Broome said. “Everything is full. If you have two or three horses they can find you a spot, I guess. I have too many horses. There was a rumor going around yesterday that we're getting a 90-day extension. That would have been perfect. And now today, no–it's just a rumor.”
Combest said the FHBPA board is looking for alternative stabling, but declined to give specifics outside of ruling out Hialeah Park, which currently houses quarter horses in tents.
“I just put a horse in for Wednesday, Broome said. “The race is going, but if I don't get to train, I'm not going to be able to run. I've been coming to Gulfstream for 21 years, and now all of a sudden I have no place to train.”
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