Almost a War Zone

There will be a 40-day meet at Gulfstream Park West, formerly Calder, beginning in October and concluding in November and, frankly, track management hopes you don't show up.

In what has to be one of the odder situations in racing history, the old Calder grandstand is in the process of being torn down and the entire facility is in shambles. Yet, in order to keep its casino license, Gulfstream West must run a 40-day meet, one that is now operated by Gulfstream. The track is owned by Churchill Downs, but the racing is managed by Gulfstream owners, the Stronach Group. The Stronach team took over racing at Calder to help stabilize racing in South Florida.

Churchill management has not responded to inquiries concerning the decision to tear down the grandstand.

With Gulfstream West in such a state of disarray, Stronach Group officials will be encouraging fans to go to Gulfstream to bet the cross-town races through simulcasting.

“Unfortunately we have to be there this year,” said Tim Ritvo, a member of the Stronach Group executive board. “The problem with this year is that the building is half up, half down. It's almost like a war zone. They've taken all the glass out and it's really unattractive. We will run 40 days there and get in and out as quickly as we can. There won't be a lot of amenities for the public this year. For the owners and trainers we'll have a tent. It's not like we're going to throw anybody out, but we're not going to do any marketing , we're not going to do any promotion, at least until the building fully comes down, which will probably be in 2017. Then we'll see what the situation is. We're going to try to push people to go to Gulfstream for simulcasting.”

The only place fans will be able to watch the races from will be the apron. The grandstand is completely shut off to the public. Ritvo said there will be a concession stand and bathrooms, plus a handful of mutuel clerks.

“We'll try to do the best we can under difficult circumstances,” he said.

The move to Gulfstream West will come at a particularly bad time for Gulfstream as the track is riding a wave of momentum and is piling up handle numbers that are unimaginable for Gulfstream West.

“It's definitely less than ideal for us. But it's also not good for the industry or the state,” Ritvo said. “Handle will go down significantly by running at Gulfstream West versus Gulfstream. It's very frustrating. Whether we're right or wrong, and sometimes we make mistakes, but everything we do we do is an attempt to grow the business. We have a lot of momentum going. Last Saturday at Gulfstream we handled $7 million and on Sunday $5 million. That's in the summer, in July, and the place was packed. We're getting a lot of attention to our product and attracting a lot of new customers.”

Gulfstream management will have to build a temporary structure for the stewards and placing judges and will have to make sure the camera towers are in place. The track's simulcast team, led by Ron Nicoletti, will do its duties from Gulfstream. No point sending them to Gulfstream West. Ritvo said he hoped to convince politicians and the Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering to allow Churchill to run the old Calder dates at Gulfstream in the future and still keep its casino license. That, he says, would simplify an overly complicated situation.

The Gulfstream-Gulfstream West arrangment is just one more example of the dysfunctional nature of Florida racing, and no one is quite sure where this is headed. Gulfstream is in the third year of a six-year deal to operate Gulfstream West, but when that deal expires anything can happen.

“When this deal is over negotiations have to start all over again,” Ritvo said. “I am sure the horsemen have to be very concerned as the end of the deal is the end of the agreement where they have to give part of their slot money to racing. We don't know what the future will bring but the slot money from Calder is $7.5 million a year that goes toward purses. It would be a big blow to lose that. The red herring is also the decoupling issue, which never goes away.”

So when Gulfstream West opens there will be broken glass, a crumbling grandstand, mounds of dirt, scaffolding, cranes and bulldozers, weeds and, who knows, 100, 150 fans in attendance? Not exactly racing as it was meant to be.