By Jim Freer
The Gulfstream Park West meet, held at Calder in Miami Gardens, will not have live racing this Thursday which is Thanksgiving Day.
But Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, eight miles east of Calder, will be open Thursday for simulcast watching and wagering on six thoroughbred tracks.
The Silks simulcast area on Gulfstream’s first floor will be open from 11:00 a.m. Eastern until approximately 6:00 p.m. Eastern.
The last scheduled race of the simulcast day is the eighth and final race at Golden Gate with post of 5:45 p.m. Eastern (2:45 p.m.Pacific).
The other five tracks on the Gulfstream simulcast menu for Thursday are Aqueduct, Churchill Downs, Del Mar, Fair Grounds and Laurel Park.
Also on Thursday the two Gulfstream casino rooms and the Gulfstream poker room will be open their reguar weekday hours. There is no in-bound simulcasting at Calder, where Gulfstream is holding the meet as part of a lease agreement.
Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar will be closed entirely on Thursday. It will be open on Friday for simulcasting and poker.
On Saturday, Tampa Bay will open its 2017-2018 live racing season. Frst post s 12:25 p.m. for a ten-race card.
*The GP West meet will close out its 40-day season this weekend.
The schedule:
Friday–nine races with first post at 12:35 p.m
Saturday–eleven races with first post at 12:00 p.m.
Sunday–ten races with first post at 12:35 p.m.
There are no stakes races any of those days
On Friday, GP West will have a Super Hi-5 carryover of $24,382.83 on the first race and a new pool in the Rainbow 6.
On Sunday, the most recent race day, there were no winners of the Super Hi-5 on the last three races. The Super Hi-5 requires picking the first five finishers in correct order, with no consolation payoffs such as four of five. It is a $1 minimum bet.
Also on Sunday, there was just one winning ticket on the Rainbow 6. It paid $141,853.12 on the 20-cent only bet.
That jackpot payoff included a carryover of $67,077 that had built up over eight race days–when there were multiple tickets with the winners of all Rainbow 6 races.
Sunday will be a mandatory payout of the Rainbow 6 pool, including any carryover, regardless of the number of tickets with all six winning horses.
On non-mandatory days, Gulfstream pays out the jackpot only if there is just one ticket wih the winners of all Rainbow6 races.
At meets run by Gulfstream, there is a 20 percent takeout on each day’s new Rainbow 6 bet.
On non-mandatory payoff days, when there are multiple winning tickets Gulfstream divides 56 percent of the day’s bets among the winning tickets and adds 24 percent to the carryover.
If there are multiples Rainbow 6 winning tickets on Sunday, they will divide the jackpot payoff of the full carryover and 80 percent of the day’s new Rainbow 6 bet.
*The Gulfstream Park 2017-2018 championship meet will open on Saturday Dec 2. The card will include nine stakes races in the Claiming Crown. All of those races have six-figure purses and are restricted to horses that have run at least once at or below designated claiming prices.
