Aidan Butler | Horse Racing Free Tips

Report: Gulfstream Considers Adding Tapeta Course To Offset Turf Use

The Stronach Group's COO Aidan Butler told the Thoroughbred Daily News this week that Gulfstream Park may become the first track in North America to have three surfaces, adding a Tapeta surface to its standing dirt and turf courses.

The addition of a synthetic track would offset the use of Gulfstream's turf course, Butler explained, which now faces an increasing work load in 2021 after the closure of Calder. Running Calder as Gulfstream Park West for two months out of the year, Gulfstream officials had been able to give the primary turf course a rest.

Mike Lakow and Bill Badgett were the initial forces behind the idea to install a Tapeta course.

“This was Billy and Mike's idea, that we maybe could get a Tapeta track in there as part of the turf course,” Butler told the TDN. “You would then have the perfect three surfaces. That would rest up the turf a little bit. And should the weather change, it would give you a lot of options to keep turf races together. Also, from a safety standpoint, it would be nice to have more than one surface for training in the mornings.”

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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Gulfstream May Install a Synthetic Surface

Looking for ways to avoid overusing the turf course at Gulfstream Park, The Stronach Group may install a synthetic Tapeta surface at the South Florida track. The news was revealed by Stronach Group COO Aidan Butler during his appearance on this week’s TDN Writers’ Room, presented by Keeneland. Butler said that The Stronach Group is looking into the possibility of having three tracks at Gulfstream, dirt, turf and synthetic.

The grass course at Gulfstream is under heavy use throughout the year, but it had been getting a two-month break while racing shifted across town to Gulfstream Park West/Calder. With Gulfstream Park West having run its last race Nov. 28, Gulfstream officials were faced with either trying to race over the turf course 12 months a year or finding some other alternative. With turf horses tending to run well on synthetic surfaces, a Tapeta track could be used to complement the regular diet of grass racing. It could also be used as an alternate surface when inclement weather would mean a sloppy dirt surface, which often brings about a number of scratches.

“Without Calder, the smart approach would be to put in a synthetic track at Gulfstream and have three surfaces,” said Butler, who was this week’s Green Group Guest of the Week. “We are all aware that we have an amazing turf course. But, using it that much, it does get cut up. And should the weather change, which it often does in Florida, that can decimate a card. These cards can get blown apart. There’s now so many scratches that these cards can become mediocre.”

Butler, who had been working primarily at Santa Anita, recently took on the added role of overseeing the operation at Gulfstream. He said the idea to put in a Tapeta surface was first raised by Gulfstream executives Mike Lakow and Billy Badgett.

“This was Billy and Mike’s idea, that we maybe could get a Tapeta track in there as part of the turf course,” he said. You would then have the perfect three surfaces. That would rest up the turf a little bit. And should the weather change, it would give you a lot of options to keep turf races together. Also, from a safety standpoint, it would be nice to have more than one surface for training in the mornings. This would be a way of approaching the needs that have arisen with the closing of Calder. Calder gave us a break because it gave the turf at Gulfstream Park a rest.”

Gulfstream would become the first North American track to have all three types of racing surfaces–dirt, turf, synthetic–in use at one time.

During his appearance, Butler touched on a number of subjects, including the widely-praised decision to end the post time drag at Gulfstream.

“We all understand that on certain days, on certain races, on certain betting events, like a mandatory payout day on the Pick Six, having a drag gives people more time to get their bets in, and that’s a good thing,” he said. “It can help the handle. There are people who have really studied this. When the drag becomes the norm, it removes any upside or positivity. In the end, I thought all it was doing was to make us look unprofessional. How can you be Gulfstream, in my estimation a track that is as good as any in the world, and not even get the fundamentals of running on time down right?”

In the West Point Thoroughbreds news segment, the writers reviewed last week’s major races, including the GI Cigar Mile, weighed in Chad Brown posting comments on Twitter criticizing Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey and addressed the latest problems with the Gmax timing system.

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Ask Ray: Where Did The Comments Sections Go?

As publisher Ray Paulick said in the introduction to this latest installment of “Ask Ray,” it's been a while. But the Paulick Report is in the process of deciding whether or not to permanently remove the comments section from the website, and Ray wanted to explain the reasons for the possible change after receiving a number of inquiries. Comments have been disabled … for now at least.

And since he got out of his pajamas, shaved and made himself somewhat presentable, he decided to dip into the “Ask Ray” mailbag and answer a few other questions from readers.

Ray tries to respond to all the emails and “Ask Ray” inquiries he receives. so if you don't hear from him immediately, you can probably assume he's forgotten, or your query is pushed too far down into his inbox. Don't be afraid to remind him again. And again if necessary.

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Shocker–Gulfstream Races Go Off at Post Time

After years of dragging its races out and running as many as seven or eight minutes after the listed post times, Gulfstream Park had a major surprise for horseplayers Wednesday on the opening day of the Championship Meet. The races were run at their advertised post times.

The change was ushered in by Aidan Butler, who had been working at the California tracks for The Stronach Group, the owners of Gulfstream, before he was recently promoted and reassigned, with his new duties including overseeing Florida racing.

“There are so many reasons why it is the right thing to do,” Butler said. “It’s the right thing to do from the aspect of the enjoyment of the sport. It’s the right thing to do when it comes to professionalism and being efficient. It’s the right thing to do for the animals. You don’t want them hanging around out there when it’s hot and going around and around in circles. Going forward, the team at Gulfstream and the team at The Stronach Group, we want to try to be the best at everything we do. That might sound cheesy, but that’s what we are striving for. That involves everything we do.”

Butler was aware of several postings on social media praising Gulfstream for the new strategy, many of them from horseplayers who had grown tired of having to guess when a Gulfstream race was actually going to be run.

“I didn’t expect the amount of feedback we have been getting because I just saw it as an operational tweak,” he said. “This is one of many things we want to tweak. I see that it is being well received.”

The post time drag was instituted as a means to increase handle, the idea being that giving bettors so much extra time before a race is actually run would lead to more money being put through the windows. Having to wait for the Gulfstream races could also have had the effect of keeping people from betting on other tracks. However, another possibility was that no extra money was actually being bet because players knew they could wait until the very last minute to place their bets and weren’t fooled by the post times that were listed.

Butler was among those that didn’t believe that the drag was having a positive impact on handle.

“I don’t believe what they were doing was productive,” he said. “All that it ended up doing was causing confusion. We all want horse racing to be taken super seriously and as a really good wagering sport and an enjoyable thing to be involved with. Then all these things happen across the industry, and I’m not just talking about post times, that are a little bit rinky dink. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s not what you would find at an ‘A class’ sporting event. We need to refocus a little bit and find things like this and address them.”

Speaking prior to the day’s fourth race, Butler said it was too early to tell if the change had negatively impacted handle with gamblers having to adjust to a new schedule and possibly getting shut out. A possible plan to first take the drag down to three or four minutes was discussed but then abandoned.

“They had been doing this for such a long time that we were thinking of backing into this slowly,” he said. “But then even if handle was going to be a little light at first because people weren’t getting their bets in, we decided to get right into it. Sometimes you are better off having that shock so more people hear about what you are doing and more people will pay attention.”

While Gulfstream was one of the first and worst offenders when it came to the post time drag, the majority of tracks in the U.S. followed their lead to the point where it is rare to see races go off on time anywhere. Butler said that, going forward, all of The Stronach Group tracks will strive to have their races go off on time.

“We’re going to try to be as efficient as we can with these times,” he said. “There might be times where we don’t want to end up crashing into other racetracks. That’s not going to be the norm. The norm, hopefully, will be what you saw today at Gulfstream.”

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