By Joe Quillen
Sunday 12/24/23 – Gulfstream Park Race 6 – The Allen Jerkins Handicap
Ever wonder what happens when a race is cancelled for whatever reason? That is the case here for the H. Allen Jerkins Handicap, which was originally set to run last weekend and runs on the Christmas Eve program at Gulfstream Park which runs as the sixth race of a ten race program that starts at 12:10 pm ET. The Jerkins Handicap is an estimated 2:36 pm ET post, so hopefully won’t take away too much from some Christmas Eve football action, yo!
In some cases, some of those common races, as I will call them for the sake of this article, don’t come back in the condition books, which are a list of races which the racing office at the racetrack plans to run if there is enough interest. Then there is a stakes handicap like today which was postponed last Saturday a few hours before the race was to be run. In this case, they did bring this race back as soon as they could.
As is the case when a race or is brought back to run after a partial (as the case last weekend) or a full day cancellation (which is due to happen on the East Coast since it is winter after all), the racing office reopens the races, allows for the horses’ connections to bring horses back for the new date or remove them from the race. In this case, we lost two horses from the field, but we will still have eight horses going to the post for this two-mile marathon.
I do have to warn you if you are looking for something to play on Sunday. The pickings are slim for horse racing handicappers on Sunday as it is Christmas Eve. There’s Gulfstream and Tampa Bay Downs for the thoroughbreds, and for harness racing lovers, there’s Harrah’s Philadelphia, a track south of Philadelphia International Airport in Chester, Pennsylvania, and First Track Cumberland in Maine, which is available on TwinSpires, my Advanced Deposit Wagering site of choice, though may not be at your local track/simulcast facility. It’s very possible that Gulfstream will handle even more money today since there are only two thoroughbred options to play.
As I said last week when I initially handicapped this race, I still love the 5 McLovin (5/2 morning line). He won at this distance last time out at Far Hills, which is a one-day meet which is mostly for the steeplechase horses. That track is a European style turf only course with undulations around your trip from start to finish. He’s also dropping 21 pounds for this race, as that Far Hills race had a steeplechase type start with no actual starting gate and higher weights assigned for the jockeys as usually is the case in a jump race meeting. I don’t think he goes for the lead as he did most of the way in Northern New Jersey, but he will be there to win this race.
Value Engineering (9/5 ML favorite) did not show much in his return last time out on the synthetic surface at Turfway Park last month, but he’s going to get money from his back class, running against tougher grade 1 and 2 company going distance from a mile and three-eighths to a mile and a half before going to the sidelines after his performance in the Man O War in May at Belmont. He’s the defending champ in this race, though this race was run on the synthetic surface last year at a shortened distance. This time though, this will be on the grass going the promoted distance of two miles. If he wins this race, great, but I don’t think he can go this far on the turf.
Six Minus (#3, 8/1 ML) came back from a two month break to just miss in a mile and a sixteenth optional claimer on the tapeta last month, and he’s a gelding that has won at the mile and a half distance. If you’re a handicapper who likes to play a horse second off a layoff, then this may be your horse at a nice price.
The 2 Catch That Party (8/1 ML) does come off a win at Belmont at Aqueduct in September and returns after a three-month break. The distance does not look like a problem to him. He should be there at the end of this two-mile contest.
I’m going to go 5-3-1-2 in the Jerkins Handicap, and my play is $20 to win on the 5 here.
Whether you celebrate or not, I do want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. There is no racing on Christmas Day, so allow this final paragraph to allow me the space to wish everyone the merriest of Christmases, and I hope that Santa (and the horse racing gods) treat you well.
Follow Joe on Twitter/Instagram/Threads @JoeQuills. Check out the Bleacher Brothers Show from 8 to 10 pm Eastern Time on the Tony Bruno Sports Network app!