Gulfstream Park to Subsidize Shipping Costs This Summer

by T.D. Thornton

In an attempt to bolster the horse population during the summer months, Gulfstream Park will pay for shipping costs incurred by racing outfits that want to either relocate or return to south Florida, Gulfstream Vice President of Racing P.J. Campo said Saturday. 

“If guys are looking for spots, or if they have an overflow of horses that meet the conditions, we’d love to have them,” Campo said. “We’ve been working [to defray costs] with some outfits from Ocala from the farms, and if some new outfits would want to come between now and September, we would work with them,” Campo said. 

The news of the subsidy comes on the heels of Friday’s announcement that the Gulfstream-owned Palm Meadows Training Center will remain open during summer months for the first time since its construction in 2002. 

“Obviously with Palm Meadows staying open it gives us access to more space,” Campo said. “We’re full here at Gulfstream Park [1,350 horses] and we’re filled at Gulfstream Park West [435].” 

Last summer, in an attempt to avoid head-to-head race meets at Gulfstream and Calder Race Course, Gulfstream agreed to lease Calder for a 40-day autumn race meet. 

Rebranded “Gulfstream Park West,” the dates swap satisfied Calder’s statutory requirement to maintain casino operations while giving Gulfstream control over Thoroughbred racing in south Florida. 

As part of that agreement, the main stabling area at Calder was to remain open only though Jan. 1, 2015. After that, Gulfstream and the horsemen had the right to use only 435 stalls for six more years [the length of the horsemen’s gaming-revenue agreement with Calder]. 

In late December, Churchill Downs Inc., which owns Calder, erected a fence around 60 barns in the main stabling area and began evicting horses for an unspecified construction project. As a result, hundreds of horses either had to vacate the property or get relocated to temporary stalls in tents in a parking lot and along a maintenance road. 

The situation grew tense and there were implicit threats that the horsemen might withhold simulcasting rights from CDI entities as retribution for the Calder stabling shutdown. That did not happen, and the problem was partially resolved by the construction of 150 new stalls at Gulfstream and the spring migration of the horse population to northern racing circuits. 

When asked if the South Florida stabling crisis from last winter had finally reached an equilibrium, Campo said, “we really didn’t have a stabling crisis. That wasn’t our issue. That was Churchill Downs’s issue.” 

According to Equibase, racing will continue at Gulfstream through Oct. 3 before moving eight miles west to the Calder property for the Gulfstream Park West meet Oct. 7-Nov. 28. 

“We’ve had an outstanding April, we’ve had a great May, and we just want to continue that through the Gulfstream Park West meet and then back into the winter Gulfstream Championship meet,” Campo said. “At Palm Meadows we have about 250 horses, so we’re sitting pretty good as far as horses for the summer.” 

Campo said horsemen from anywhere in the country are welcome to query him with a shipping request.