By Sue Finley
After 20 inches of rain fell in Hallandale Beach, Florida Wednesday, Gulfstream Park officials have had to move around 300 horses from the lower barns, barns 1-11, as horses were standing in more than foot-deep water in their stalls. The horses are being moved to higher barns at Gulfstream and to the Palm Meadows Thoroughbred Training Center, located north of Gulfstream in Boynton Beach, Florida.
1/ST Racing via a press release on Thursday said their Friday program would be cancelled.
“We are in the process of moving the lower barn area, where it floods the worst,” said Gulfstream's Executive Director of Racing, Billy Badgett. “We are moving to them to Palm Meadows as we speak.” Badgett said that the upper barns and the tent barns are fine, and there was no flooding there.
Governor Ron DeSantis has declared a state of emergency in the area.
“Everybody did a great job getting the bandages off, getting them fed and keeping an eye on them,” said Badgett.
Mark Casse, whose horses are in one of the lower barns, is one of the trainers whose horses are being moved.
“There's a lot of flooding,” he said. “My guys who have been there forever and this is the worst they've ever seen it. I know we were able to move some of our horses to a higher barn and the rest are going to Palm Meadows, about 10 of them.”
Gulfstream spokesman Dave Joseph said that Hallandale Beach Boulevard and the tracks parking lots were flooded, making it impossible to get to the track. Cars in two to three feet of water were abandoned on local streets. “Today, things were subsiding and they're going to assess what's going on,” said Joseph, who said that heavy rains have created flooding before in the lower barn area.
More rain was in the forecast for Thursday, with the possibility of an additional four to eight inches, according to the National Weather Service.
Gulfstream also said that the Silks section would be open on Friday for simulcasting at 11:00 a.m. ET. The racing office will bring back races that were scheduled for Thursday and Friday as extras next week.
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