Looking for racing to follow this winter? There are popular American meetings opening in the sunny south or further to the frosty north.
The 2020-21 Championship Meet at Gulfstream Park got under way Dec. 2, with 84 racing days including 75 stakes, 37 graded, worth $13.06 million in purses.
Racing will be conducted primarily on a Wednesday-through-Sunday schedule with a first-race post time set at 12:35 p.m. ET through March 27.
No fans are permitted.
Not all the big stables have gathered at Gulfstream or training centres nearby but by the new year, the racing should be excellent.
TAMPA BAY DOWNS curiously has fans on site and its popular meeting opened at the end of November and often has some Canadians in action and lots of large fields.
TURFWAY PARK unveiled its new Tapeta racing surface when it opened this week but unfortunately had a fatality on opening night. Hopefully the Kentucky track will continue on through the winter injury-free.
GOLDEN GATE FIELDS is still closed, to Dec. 26, after an outbreak of COVID-19 on the backstretch in November.
AQUEDUCT in New York, PENN NATIONAL in Pennsylvania and FAIR GROUNDS in Louisiana are among the other tracks in action.
In other track news, the first ever card of night racing at the Garrison Savannah in Bridgetown, Barbados, scheduled for Nov. 30 was cancelled due to continued issues with the turf course. The Barbados Turf Club announced on its Facebook page that the highly-anticipated night racing event scheduled for Independence Day had been cancelled and re-scheduled for Dec. 12:
“Please be advised that following an inspection of the racetrack it was noted that track is still very soft in general and waterlogged in certain areas. In the interest of safety and prevention of further damage to the turf course the Directors have taken the decision to abandon the raceday which was scheduled to be held on the 30th November 2020. We respectfully request that persons refrain from conducting frequent inspection of the track as this is resulting in multiple footprints and trampling of areas which are exposed and under repair.”
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