The Great Gulfstream

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was president, Hialeah Race Course was more than a decade old and Johnstown was three months away from winning the Kentucky Derby when Gulfstream Park opened 60 years ago.

The meeting only lasted four days despite the opening day attendance of 18,000 and a mutuel handle of $224,287 on Feb. 1, 1939. The owners ran out of money and the track was dark from 1940 to '43.

In '44, James Donn Sr., one of the creditors who owned Exotic Gardens in South Miami, bought the track and ran a 20-day meeting. The average daily attendance was only 4,534, but the average handle was a nifty $281,902.

The track hasn't missed a beat since. The Donn family owned Gulfstream until '90, when it changed the first of two times within two years, but Doug Donn Jr. has been retained as chief executive officer.

Gulfstream has begun what could be its best meeting. It offers:

A Florida record $5.25 million in stakes money.

A national record percentagewise of graded stakes: 31 of 35, including the $750,000 Florida Derby for 3 year olds.

A colony of the best jockeys on the continent, including Jerry Bailey, who won the riding title last year and four of the last five, and Shane Sellers, who wore the crown in '97.

Top trainers, including Bill Mott, who goes for his seventh consecutive championship.

The Gulfstream Gallery, a museum of the track's history, located behind the grandstand and adjacent to the Garden of Champions. It includes mementos and memorabilia, plus interactive monitors that allow fans to view digitized film clips of the greatest horses who ran at Gulfstream from Cigar and Holy Bull to Skip Away and Kelso.

And, don't forget, Gulfstream landed its third Breeders' Cup, which is scheduled for Nov. 6.

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