Slots are in at Gulfstream

[Pedigree Ann]

Originally Posted by oracle80

Ahh, but you didn't address the incredibly stupid track configuration.
Don't you think that some was asleep at the whell when they ok'd a track config that eliminated mile and a sixteenth races(at of all places a track that prides itself on being a place where three year olds go to prepare for the crown)? And even worse made the mile and an eigth races exteremely hard to win from outside post 5?
Trainers only have one two turn option, a mile and an eigth, and many three year olds don't wanna go that far in Jan and Feb and even in March.
It wasn't exactly well thought out, to say the least.

Oddly enough, Hialeah, the empress of the Florida tracks, was a 9f circuit. It had a program of 3yo races to prepare them to go long, based on the assumption that the colts would have had a break of a couple months or more. For example, the schedule in 1970 was; 21 Jan Hibiscus S at 6f - 4 Feb Bahamas S at 7f - 18 Feb Everglades S at 9f - 3 March Flamingo S at 9f. Of course, it was assumed that these 3yos would go on to run in further 2-turn races before the Derby. For example, Arts and Letters, the champion 3yo of 1979, won the Evergaldes and Blue Grass, was second in the Flamingo, Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby. Went on to run close seconds in the Derby and Preakness, then win the Met Mile, Belmont, Travers, Woodward and JCGold Cup.