Spring has arrived early this year as the 10 day forecast this morning had 70 degree temperatures through next weekend when it will dip down to the pleasant mid 60's. Pimlico which opens March 30th has a bunch of turf races written in its condition book which is always a welcome development. Atlantic City usually kicks off the New Jersey/Pennsylvania turf season and Penn and Parx usually ease grass races into their schedules in May. Monmouth is scheduled to open on May 12 and while I'm not sure about when they will begin offering grass races, it won't be too long after opening day.
Our barn has quite a few turf horses and though some can hold their own on the dirt others like Mustang Island are grass only. This time of the year is also when we start training the 2 year old's with races carded as early as mid April at some venues. We don't usually have many early types in the barn but we may have a few babies running this summer.
We are going to stable a string of horses at Monmouth Park this Summer, moving in as soon as they open the backside sometime in mid-April. Monmouth has had some "off the track" issues over the last few years but the new deal with the NJTHA should provide some stability and the dates and purse levels fit our horses very well. It is a great place to train young horses and being located within an hour drive of our home base at the training center in Westampton makes it convenient as well.
We will also be keeping our barn at Parx and between the two racetracks and training center we should be able to meet the training needs of all our horses. With Delaware, Pimlico, Penn National and Belmont/Saratoga all being only a short drive from any of our locations we should be able to spot our horses well even if our home tracks dont offer a particular type of race.
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