Live racing returns to Gulfstream Park Tuesday, June 25 with 84 entrants, including also-eligibles, for an eight-race card.
Of the entrants, which were drawn June 21, 24 had their most recent published workout at Gulfstream in Hallandale Beach, Fla., and 49 had their most recent published workout at nearby Calder Casino & Race Course in Miami Gardens, Fla. The other entrants did not have any listed workouts or had a workout at another track or training site.
The eight races will have total purses of $153,500, a combination of claiming and optional claiming events with a featured allowance/optional claiming heat. All eight races will be on the new dirt surface that Gulfstream has put in for its first summer of racing.
First post time Tuesday is 12:50 p.m. EDT.
"We're very excited about Tuesday's live program and the support and interest from the horsemen," said Gulfstream president Tim Ritvo.
The mix of Calder and Gulfstream horses is "about what we expected," Ritvo said.
Calder will be dark June 25 and on that day trainers who ship horses from Calder to race at Gulfstream will be allowed to bring them back to Calder. But Calder has not agreed to allow that "open access" for early July and future months when it and Gulfstream are both scheduled to have racing on Saturdays and Sundays.
Gulfstream has agreed to let trainers send horses to race at Calder and bring them back. Gulfstream has about 300 horses in its stables and expects that trainers will move about 500 more from Calder by early July.
The June 25 card will test the interest of bettors in southeast Florida and nationally as Gulfstream prepares for head-to-head racing with Calder on Saturdays and Sundays from July 6 through the end of June 2014.
Ritvo said Gulfstream feels that the two tracks are not as close to resolving their dates dispute as they were in early June. He said that he and John Marshall, Calder's general manager for racing, are talking almost daily with the hope of finding a resolution.
The June 25 Gulfstream program is officially an additional day for its 2012-2013 meet that ended April 5.
Calder began its 2013 meet April 6.
Gulfstream will begin its summer racing season with programs on July 1 and July 4.
A $35,000 optional claiming allowance race will be the featured seventh race on Gulfstream's June 25 program. A field of nine horses, including the Kirk Ziadie-trained entry of Runyon Humor and Musical Flair, was entered in the 6 1/2-furlong dirt sprint.
Ziadie, Peter Walder, Donna Green, and Dennis Ward are among trainers who are stabled at Gulfstream and have horses entered in at least two of the June 25 races.
Gulfstream's 10-cent Rainbow 6, a multi-race wager that has produced multi-million-dollar payoffs, will get underway in the third race June 25. The 50-cent Pick 5 will begin in the fourth race.
Because Tuesday's program is the official final program of the 2012-2013 Gulfstream meeting, there will be mandatory payoffs for both wagers.
