By Noel Michaels - see profile

The Gulfstream Park meet is 2 1/2 months old and we are already approaching the centerpiece of the meet – Florida Derby Day – on Saturday, March 20. There is still one month left in the marquee East coast winter meet, but we have already seen more than enough racing at this point to give us plenty of valuable information to provide for a profitable month ahead for Florida Derby Day and beyond. The information we’ve gleaned at Gulfstream from early January until now should be enough to give us the framework for a profitable stretch-run through the end of South Florida’s premier race meet at Gulfstream.

Gulfstream offers the East’s top winter stakes program, which is headlined by Florida Derby Day and its 5 Graded stakes races including the featured Grade 1, $750,000 Florida Derby, which will be the final Kentucky Derby prep race for several promising Derby hopefuls. The Florida Derby will go as race 11 of a 12-race card that also includes renewals of the G2-Bonnie Miss Stakes for 3-year-old filly Kentucky Oaks aspirants, and the G2 Swale Stakes, a sprint for 3-year-olds, as well as the G3 Rampart Stakes and the Grade 3 Appleton Stakes.