HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Gulfstream Park officials are on the verge of finalizing plans to install a Tapeta racetrack on what is now the outer section of the turf course, giving the track the option to run races over three different surfaces. “It’s going to happen,” Bill Badgett, executive director of Florida racing for track owner The Stronach Group, said Friday. “Right now, we’re just trying to find a time frame to implement the project that will be least disruptive to our racing schedule. We had the engineers out here on Tuesday surveying the course. The Tapeta track will be installed over what is now the outer 60 feet of the turf course. That will still give us enough room for two rail settings on the inner turf.” :: Enhance your handicapping with DRF’s Gulfstream Park Clocker Report Badgett said the primary reason for implementing the Tapeta track is to help maintain field sizes when races have to be taken off the grass due to inclement weather, a common occurrence here. “We had over 100 races taken off the turf last year, and that becomes a major blow to our handle due to the inevitable reduction of field sizes,” Badgett said. “With the option to switch those races to the Tapeta track rather than a wet main track, we’ll be able to keep the fields intact, which keeps the handle intact, which in turn helps keep the purses intact.” Badgett said there are several other upsides to installing the Tapeta track. “We can also move regularly scheduled races on the dirt to the Tapeta if the main track gets too sloppy, we can use it in the morning for training, and perhaps even write some of the cheaper claiming races that normally would be run on the turf for the Tapeta instead,” Badgett explained. “That would help keep the turf course pristine for the better horses, the allowance races and the stakes.” Some critics believe the Tapeta surface might not lend itself to the warmer climate in South Florida. But Badgett says that’s just not the case. “Bridlewood Farm in Ocala has a Tapeta track and it gets just as hot,” Badgett said. “They get just as much rain as we do down here. The heat won’t have any effect on the course at all.” Badgett said it will take approximately 60 days to install the Tapeta course once the turf is removed, which should take only a few days to complete. “We’re still trying to figure out all the logistics and what effect the construction might have on the summer meet,” Badgett said. “So at the moment we have no time frame for when the project will begin or be completed.” :: To stay up to date, follow us on: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter The 2020-21 Championship meet ends March 28. The spring-summer session begins the following Thursday with a four-day-a-week racing schedule during April. Badgett said that, for the most part, local horsemen have voiced their approval for the new project. Trainer Mark Casse, who has vast experience racing over the Tapeta track at Woodbine, said: “There might be someone else in the world who has run more races over Tapeta, but I don’t know who it would be, and I think it’s a tremendous move. I’ve said all along you can get maybe four or five more starts a year with a horse over Tapeta. They don’t have to be as fit to run on it and they recover faster. Horses weren’t bred to run on dirt, they were bred to run on grass, and Tapeta is as close to turf as we can get. And it handles the rain really well. All sorts of people have done studies on it, but I run at Woodbine and I run on dirt, so I’ve done my own studies. And I can’t emphasize enough about the positives of racing on it.” Steve Screnci, president of the Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association, said the Florida HBPA was pleased with management's decision to put in a Tapeta track. "We're very excited about having the additional surface because it gives the horsemen and the track extra options, especially since we rely so heavily on our turf course around here," said Screnci. "It will help keep field sizes together, and more horses mean more handle, which means more purse money. It could also fill a gap, since there is little or virtually no turf training permitted at Gulfstream Park, to protect that surface. Realistically, we realize there will probably be some down time this summer, some dates lost due to the construction, but hopefully they will be able to be repositioned elsewhere on the schedule."