Beyer: Gulfstream its own worst enemy

[Clocker]

Article from the Washington Post

[Cratos]

Originally Posted by Clocker

Article from the Washington Post

A very interesting read; Beyer is at his best when he writes.

[wisconsin]

Beyer is spot on.

[taxicab]

Beyer has it right.
Three obvious points.
Churchill just doesn't care about anything but their money.
They don't care who they treat badly to get it.
Stronach is a clown.
When he bought GP they were perhaps the number one meet in the country.
Now they don't even crack the top 5.
He drove away everybody who enjoyed a day at the races with his idiot remodel of the property.
And now his handle is sinking also.
My word, Fickle Frank sure doesn't get "If it ain't broke, don't fix it".

[CincyHorseplayer]

I agree and I am a person that absolutely loves Gulfstream.It is my hub track during the winter.Not only has the dilution effect come into obvious being,the beloved turf course is taking too prolonged of a beating,a total sin.Do your winter meet and possibly something similar to Oaktree at Santa Anita around BC and IMO that's perfection.

[Robert Goren]

Pretty well sets up the state of the sport every where in this country not just Florida. The tracks are either in hands of greedy blood suckers or crazy than loons. It is pretty bleak everywhere.

[onefast99]

This boils down to only the strong will survive, thus GP will do whatever it has to to make Calder a non-entity during the winter racing season even if that includes the dilution of the product. The positives for GP is that the winter stakes racing will continue to draw both attendance and handle wise. Calder should go back to the table and work-out a solution to this issue with GP.

[1st time lasix]

With the high takeouts...past-post syndicate batch betting...and now dismal weaker fields....the handle at Calder will continue to decline. If they didn't have slots and poker on site they likely would have shut down already. From a players perspective.... I see no reason why it shouldn't simply go away. Gulfstream and Tampa can fill any winter void very easily. (Of course i don't play NY in the winter....I don't play Florida in the sunmmer either.}

[CincyHorseplayer]

Didn't Calder start all this insanity back in the 90's anyway?Trying to be a year long running track?It's nuts to even compete in the same city at the same time.With Hialeah coming back IMO that should be the dominant track in the spring-summer months.Running GP and Tampa at the same doesn't doesn't completely interfere because they are two different tiers of racing.Calder definitely hurts Tampa and so would Hialeah.

So if I'm in charge Hialeah and Calder split dates April-October,the other 2 get the rest.

[Valuist]

The most interesting thing I find is that there's a definite decrease in betting handle on Gulfstream. This finding is a week after we see betting on the Super Bowl in Nevada had its biggest year over year increase (20%) ever.

[RXB]

The perfect period for racing at Gulfstream is December through March. Those four months offer the ideal combo of the driest weather span in Miami and not much competition for good horses on the east coast. That's why the December/April dates-switch with Calder a few years ago made sense (and should've been done years earlier).

Calder could use a break instead of racing eight consecutive months so a mid-level summer meet at Gulfstream would make sense, too.

Dec-Mar: GP
Apr-Jun: Crc
Jul-Aug: GP
Sep-Nov: Crc

[Grits]

Because Gulfstream has raced on fewer days, total wagering for December and January has plunged by more than $80 million, a stunning figure.

This is a huge drop. No one tells the story of thoroughbred racing better than this man. He's forgotten more than 99% of us will know in our lifetime.

[Tom]

As far as I'm concerned, there is only one track in Florida, and it ain't Calder of Gulfstream.

[Saratoga_Mike]

Originally Posted by Tom

As far as I'm concerned, there is only one track in Florida, and it ain't Calder of Gulfstream.

Derby Lane in Tampa?

[Redboard]

I noticed that GP lowered the purse on their MSW to $47k, down from $52k last year. When I see things like that being done, for no apparent reason except to spread that purse over the summer(I guess), GP losses a little bit of it's luster for me.