FOY Shortened

[Tom]

FOY has been backed up to a mile!
Isn't that kind of dumb? Horses looking to the Derby need to go longer, not shorter. I would think this would knock this one out of a lot of road maps to KY.

[joanied]

FOY has been backed up to a mile!
Isn't that kind of dumb? Horses looking to the Derby need to go longer, not shorter. I would think this would knock this one out of a lot of road maps to KY.

I agree...why on earth did they do that? Especially since everyone is supposed to be looking to get some distance horses out there, you know, try and get more stamina into these horses...so what do they do...shorten up a major Derby prep? Are they stupid or something??

[NatteringNeighBob]

Not sure if this is a good idea or not, but the racing secretary at GP would like to use the Fountain of Youth as stepping stone for late developing 3yos. The following quote, which explains the reasoning behind this change, is from an article on Bloodhorse.com, about the changes for the upcoming 2009 GP meet (full article here: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/48539/gulfstream-banking-on-2009-meet-changes).

"...Gulfstream cannot run a 1 1/16 mile race on its 1 1/8-mile dirt track. That configuration impacts the schedule for 3-year old prep races, Bredar said.

Two early one-turn stakes also should be looked at in the 3-year old progression, he said. Those races are the non-graded Spectacular Bid at six furlongs Jan. 3 and the Hutcheson (gr. II) at seven furlongs Jan. 30. In addition to being targets in themselves for sprinters, Bredar believes the two races “are an opportunity for horses that are behind to get ready for routes.”

For those horses, the one-mile Fountain of Youth can be a progression toward later two two-turn stakes..."

[RichieP]

I like the move. I also like the 5 day race week. I'm liking this Bredar's early moves as racing sec and hope his vision works out as it will benefit the horseplayer(bigger fields etc).

:ThmbUp::ThmbUp:

[joanied]

Now that I've read about the reasoning...maybe it IS a good idea...may as well give it a shot, if you think about it, the FOY isn't as prestegious as it once was...back in the day at Hialeah.
I don't know anything abour this Bredar guy, sure can't do any worse down there...and I also really like the 5 day race week...I hope it's a huge sucess so that other tracks (at least the major ones) may follow and do the same thing...I think there are more pro's than con's...and if a track that has dark days, also has slots, then they can still keep the grandstand open for playing the slots, watching and wagering races from other tracks on big screen monitors...and everyone is happy!!

[point given]

Now that I've read about the reasoning...maybe it IS a good idea...may as well give it a shot, if you think about it, the FOY isn't as prestegious as it once was...back in the day at Hialeah.
I don't know anything abour this Bredar guy, sure can't do any worse down there...and I also really like the 5 day race week...I hope it's a huge sucess so that other tracks (at least the major ones) may follow and do the same thing...I think there are more pro's than con's...and if a track that has dark days, also has slots, then they can still keep the grandstand open for playing the slots, watching and wagering races from other tracks on big screen monitors...and everyone is happy!!
Guy must be Caton Bredars husband or something, and I beleive he's been around as a racing sec. Gulfstream has screwed up big time the past few years and it seems there is some actual going back to the basics now and not trying to change the world to Franks world. I think the scheduling of the Florida Derby is still late in the meet ( later than it had been years ago) and they make it a final prep for the KD, so all the stakes are predicated on this ramp up in distances. If all remains so, the trainers will continue to train local and give them a race there and then ship most out to Tampa, FG, NY , Keen etc instead of going by the prep schedule gulfstream lays out.
It is also common sense to go to the 5 day week as the product had become really bad with the first 3-4 races usually pretty bad each day except weekends. Maybe they are trying to make it more attractive to a potential buyer too. We shall soon see.

[Derbyman32]

You are right about Brader (his wife is Caton).

Churchill Downs had Brader for only a short while(maybe 3 to4 months), the horsemen did not like the types of races he was carding and I think that is why he left so quickly.

[Robert Fischer]

it was a nice indicator of maybe getting a glimpse at a key derby contender and whether he was a true classic distance dirt horse...

not to mention you had the extreme track bias that killed most outside speed into the short run to the first turn.

:bang:

[sandpit]

Doug Bredar has worked as a racing official for about 20 years in various capacities, including being the racing secretary at Churchill Downs/Ellis Park for about 4 years before the CD management replaced him with their current RS, Ben Huffman. Bredar most recently was RS at Louisiana Downs, which was one of the few tracks to show an upswing in handle this year. I think he worked at Gulfstream/Hialeah several years ago, so he probably is pretty comfortable with the south Florida circuit.