Monday, October 2, 2023
Gulfstream is 6th of 8 venues . . .

    It's been quite a while since we included an update on the success (or failure) of Florida's gambling spots, so here goes. Today's edition includes the eight venues that feature slot machines.

    The amount of cash that flows through the machines at each venue is known as "credits in." The amount of cash that the entity earns is known as "net slot revenue," but that is countered by the onerous 35 percent tax levied by the state of Florida for the privilege of operating the machines, despite the fact that the state does little to earn its share.

    Each entity decides how much to pay out, so the differences in the earnings of the eight vary greatly because of the amount of their "payout percentage." Each venue's payout percentage will be listed in its paragraph.

    The Florida fiscal year begins July 1 and ends June 30. The state is always way behind in its auditing process and currently only has statistics up to date from July 1 to July 31.   

    The number 1 venue based strictly on "credits in" is called Gretna Racing, DBA as Magic City Casino. In reality it is the old Flagler dog track. For the month of July, $161,943,026 was sent through went the machines and it resulted in "net slot revenue" of $9,918,306. It's the best option for the players because it has the best payout percentage of 93.40; its 35 percent tax came to $3,471,407. 

   The number 2 venue for credits in is The Isle Casino & Racing at Pompano Park, which was the leader in that category for many years before dropping to No. 2. It handled $129,537,791 in July and slot revenue reached $10,759,864, with taxes of $3,765,95. It's blitz of Flagler in the net revenue department was due strictly due to its payout percentage of 90.63, easily highest takeout of the group.

    The number 3 credits in figure goes to Casino Miami, the old Miami Jai Alai Fronton, with $126,138,666, revenue of $7,881,157, fifth best of the eight. Takeout of 91.99 percent. Taxes - $2,758,405.

    Number 4 of credits in is Hialeah Park Casino with $125,485,404 and revenue of $8,971,854, third best money-maker. Taxes of $3,140,409 and takeout of 92.21 percent.

    The old Calder Race Course is No. 5 with credits in of $117,106,375 and revenue of $8,138,699, fourth best money-maker. Calder has the advantage of being pretty far south of Hialeah, and a little north of the cluster around Hallandale Beach. Taxes are $2,848,544 and its takeout is 91.03 percent. 

    Gulfstream Park holds down the No. 6 spot with credits in of $80,399177 and revenue of $4,794,890. It's in a bad spot with Hollywood dogs two minutes to the north, and the Hard Rock Cafe not far to the west. Taxes are $1,678,211, percentager rate is 91.82.

    Seventh in credits in with $70,405,401 and revenue of $3,760,087 is the Casino at Dania Beach, formerly Dania Jai Alai. In the center of a circle of Pompano, Hard Rock, Hollywood and Gulfstream, credits in of $70,405,401, revenue of $3,760,087, taxes $1,316,031.  

    Big Easy Casino, the old Hollywood dog track, is in a worse position than Gulfstream with the horse track right down the road to the south, Hard Rock to the west and Dania Jai Alai not too far north. Plus, when it first opened, the track was in poor physical shape, lost a lot of business because of it, and even though much has been renovated, it's possible many of the former non-attendees never decided to try it. Credits in is $55,751,685, revenue of $3,102,398, taxes $1,085,839, takeout 92.29 percent.

       

      

    

     

 

 

     

     

    

 

 

 

 

Sunday, October 1, 2023
First stakes score for Bucchero colt . . .
    HALLANDALE BEACH - Ironhorse Racing Stable and Harlow Stables’s Mattingly went yard Saturday at Gulfstream Park, scoring a 1 ¾-length victory in the $90,000 Hollywood Beach.

    The 3-2 favorite for the five-furlong stakes for juveniles on Tapeta provided jockey Samy Camacho with his fourth victory on Saturday’s 10-race program.

    Mattingly, twice stakes-placed in his three previous starts, rated off a fast early pace set by Esperon before advancing on the turn into the homestretch and outrunning Okiro in the stretch while completing five furlongs in 56.67 seconds. Esperon held on for third, a length back.

    Mattingly finished second behind multiple-stakes winner No Nay Mets while making his debut in the $100,000 Royal Palm Juvenile on turf at Gulfstream May 13 before scoring an impressive 5 ¾-length victory on Tapeta six weeks later. The son of Bucchero most recently finished second after setting a pressured pace in the Victoria Stakes at Woodbine at 5 ½-furlongs on Tapeta.

    “I learned a lot in that Woodbine race. When it scratched down to four horses, we thought, ‘Just go. He’s fast.’ He got stuck in a speed duel to set it up for the horse coming off of it. I said, ‘That’s not going to happen again,” trainer Joe Orseno said. “I know the ‘one’ is a very fast horse. I used to train his brother. I said, ‘We’ve got to let the ‘one’ and ‘three’ go.’ That was the plan we took, and it worked.”

    Mattingly, whose $64,000 winner’s purse includes a $25,000 bonus available to a registered Florida-bred winner, will race on more time this year, Orseno said. “We think he’s a very talented 2-year-old with a bright future.

    In the co-featured $60,000 Starfish Bay, Baby Steps ($18.20) led throughout the 5 ½ furlongs of the overnight handicap for fillies and mares to score by 1 ¾ lengths.

    The Jorge Delgado-trained 4-year-old daughter of Jimmy Creed provided jockey Samy Camacho his third of four winning rides Saturday afternoon while completing 5 ½ furlongs on Tapeta in 1:03.35. Choose Joy, the 123-pound highweight, finished second, a neck ahead of Sol Hope.

Rainbow 6 Rainbow 6 Pool Guaranteed 

    The 20-cent Rainbow 6 gross jackpot pool will be guaranteed at $225.000 on today’s program. The multi-race wager has gone unsolved for nine days following back-to-back jackpot hits.

    The Rainbow 6 sequence will span Races 3-8, featuring the $65,000 Aventura, a mile stakes for 2-year-olds carded as Race 6.

    Roderick Rodriguez-trained Secret Chat, a homebred son of Union Rags owned by Gelfenstein Farm LLC, has been installed at 8-5 in the morning line. The Florida-bred colt is coming off a sparkling seven-length debut victory, in which he closed from last following a troubled start.


Tuesday, September 26, 2023
Chi Chi scores at Remington . . .

    Mellon Patch’s Lady Radler (Kantharos – Sally Bowles (SAF) saved ground in the early going of the $299,750 Dogwood Stakes (G3) on Saturday night at Churchill Downs, came off the rail on the turn, charged to the lead a furlong from home and drew off to a 2 3/4-length victory.

    It’s the first graded stakes win for the 4-year-old filly by Kantharos, purchased for $37,000 out of the Eddie Woods consignment at the 2022 OBS March Sale after breezing an eighth in :10 2/5 at the Under Tack Show. Trained by Michael B. Campbell, she has earned $371,200 and compiled a 10-5-2-1 career record to date.  

    Ernest C. Frohboese’s Chi Chi (Audible – Simply Confection) was a maiden going into Sunday’s $50,000 E. L. Gaylord Memorial Stakes at Remington Park and a stakes-winner at the finish, coming from just off the pace, chasing down the leaders in the lane and scoring by a length and a quarter. The 2-year-old Florida-bred daughter of Audible, consigned by Stuart Morris, Agent, to the 2022 OBS Winter Mixed Sale, is now 3-1-0-0 for trainer Herman Wilensky, and has earned $36,560.

Monday, September 25, 2023
'Win and You're In' event for BC Filly and Mare Turf . . .
    HALLANDALE BEACH - Graded stakes-winners Caramel Swirl and Maryquitecontrary and R Adios Jersey, a four-time stakes winner in her native Florida, top a dozen horses on the main list for the $200,000 Princess Rooney Invitational (G3) Saturday, Oct. 7 at Gulfstream Park.

    The seven-furlong Princess Rooney for fillies and mares 3 and up is a “Win and You’re In” qualifier for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) Saturday, Nov. 4 at Santa Anita.

    Godolphin homebred Caramel Swirl, trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, won the 6 ½-furlong Vagrancy (G3) May 14 at Belmont Park in just her second start in nearly nine months. The 5-year-old Union Rags mare won the Raven Run (G2) in 2021 and was second to champion Goodnight Olive in the Ballerina (G1) last summer, a race where she had her most recent start, finishing fourth behind another champion in Echo Zulu Aug. 26.

    Rodney Lundock’s Florida homebred Maryquitecontrary, seventh in the Ballerina, has been right at home at Gulfstream with six wins and a second from seven career tries. The 4-year-old First Dude filly put together a five-race win streak starting last summer that included wins in the one-mile Rampart on the final day of 2022 and the seven-furlong Inside Information (G2) Jan. 28. Her streak was snapped when she ran second to Goodnight Olive in the April 8 Madison (G1) at Keeneland.

    Averill Racing, ATM Racing and Jayson Werth’s R Adios Jersey, also bred in Florida, exits a front-running 6 ½-length triumph in the seven-furlong Sheer Drama Aug. 19 at Gulfstream, where she has a record of 4-2-2 from 10 starts. Fourth in the Inside Information, the 5-year-old Adios Charlie mare has also registered three state-bred stakes wins at Tampa Bay Downs, the most recent coming in the seven-furlong FTBOA City of Ocala last December.

    Also among the main invitees are Beth’s Dream, winner of the one-mile Heavenly Cause April 15 at Laurel Park that is 4-for-7 lifetime at Gulfstream; Flakes, winner of Gulfstream’s 6 ½-furlong Game Face June 17; stakes winner Funny How, second in the April 7 Distaff Handicap (G2) at Aqueduct; Last Leaf, a four-time stakes winner at Gulfstream that is twice Grade 3-placed; and Chilean Group 2 winner Yuki.

    Four horses are on the reserve list of invitations including Flag Woman and Into Happiness, both riding three-race win streaks, and Miss New York, winner of the July 2 Boiling Springs at Monmouth Park.

    The Princess Rooney was won the past two years by Ce Ce, who used her 2021 victory as a springboard to victory in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint and the Eclipse Award as champion female sprinter.

    Run at Calder Race Course from 1983 to 2013 before being relocated to Gulfstream, the Princess Rooney honors the 1984 champion older female and 1991 inductee into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame that won 17 of 21 career starts and more than $1.3 million in purses from 1982-84. Five of her wins came in Grade 1 stakes – the 1982 Frizette, 1983 Kentucky Oaks and 1984 Vanity, Spinster and Breeders’ Cup Distaff.


$200,000 Princess Rooney Invitational (G3) List

Beth’s Dream

Bluefield

Caramel Swirl


Dr B

Flakes

Funny How

Last Leaf

Maryquitecontrary


Olivia Darling

Poiema

R Adios Jersey

Yuki 

 


Sunday, September 24, 2023
First Gr. I winner for Always Dreaming . . .

    FMQ Stables’ Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming – New Narration) stamped himself a major player in the 3-year-old division, going right to the front in the $1,000,000, Gr. I Pennsylvania Derby, opening daylight in the stretch and holding off a late run to score by half a length. OBS June Sale graduate Il Miracolo (Gun Runner – Tapit’s World) checked in third.

    After a pair of near misses in graded stakes company, it’s the first stakes win for the lightly raced 3-year-old colt by Always Dreaming, trained by Brad Cox, now 5-3-2-0 with $817,085 earnings. Consigned by Top Line Sales, Agent, to the 2022 OBS Spring Sale, he was sold for $240,000 after turning in an Under Tack eighth in :10 flat. 

    Matt Kwiatkowski, Jason Kaylor and Roger D. Browning’s Nobody Listens (Conveyance – Royalesque) took the lead just after the start of the $250,000, Gr. III Turf Monster Stakes, turned for home in front and waved goodbye from there, drawing away to a three-length victory.

    It’s the fourth straight victory and fifth stakes victory for the 5-year-old son of Conveyance, purchased for $40,000 out of the Southern Chase Farm consignment at the 2020 OBS Spring Sale after breezing an Under Tack eighth in :10 1/5. Trained by Tim Eggleston, he’s now 26-14-7-1 and has earned $704,230.