By Jim Freer and Barry Unterbrink
We are carrying out a systems upgrade on this Web site, and we will complete it on Tuesday morning Feb. 16.
So today, we will instead be writing on our blog. We invite you to check us out there and on Facebook.
A lot is happening in Florida thoroughbred racing this Presidents’ Day weekend, and a lot will be developing during the week.
*Gulfstream Park is racing on Monday, Presidents’ Day, with first post of 12:35 p.m. and all 12 races are stakes with purses of $50,000 or $60,000. And Gulfstream is not skipping any days. It will have racing as usual on Wednesday.
*The Gulfstream Rainbow 6 carryover keeps growing – to $1,046,372 on Monday.
It covers races seven through 12, with evenly matched fields and horses whose names you will recognize and will spice up the handicapping.
So put on that fresh pot of coffee, and good luck.
We’ll look at what might lie ahead.
*There were some fast times in this past weekend’s stakes races at Gulfstream and at Tampa Bay Downs. As for “just how fast,” we will check out the Equibase speed figures.
*Speaking of fast, we’ll take a second day look at Destin’s win in the Sam F. Davis (Grade 3) at Tampa Bay.
*It was a huge weekend for handle at both Florida tracks. Most notably Tampa Bay’s total handle on Saturday was almost $11 million – best ever for its Festival Preview Day.
We will have the numbers, with analysis.
*A bill that would allow decoupling for greyhound tracks and some horse tracks has passed a first hurdle in the Florida House. A similar bill is awaiting a first vote in the Florida Senate. We’ll take a look at what might be happening.
