(Edited Gulfstream Park report)

Gulfstream Park opens its 2009 live racing meet – 70 years after its first opening – Jan. 3, 2009, and sharing the marquee will be two Grade 3 events, the Spectacular Bid and the Hal’s Hope stakes.

The Spectacular Bid is for 3-year-olds at six furlongs and the Hal’s Hope is for older horses going a mile. Each race is worth $100,000.

“We see the size of the fields and the quality of horses in those fields are indications that this is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Racing Secretary Doug Bredar. “We take it to mean that we’re going to have a lot of good racing here at Gulfstream Park this year.”

The Hal’s Hope, which could feature an appearance by Da’Tara, he the spoiler of superstar Big Brown’s Triple Crown bid last spring, may have up to a dozen starters.

Da’Tara was an ordinary 3-year-old here last winter/spring, finishing far back while ninth to Big Brown in the Florida Derby, but he was prepared when his once-in-a-lifetime moment came June 7, springing a trap that brought him home five lengths clear, at 38-1, in the Belmont Stakes.

Nick Zito trains Da’Tara, and also trains Cool Coal Man, winner of last year’s Fountain of Youth; Pennsylvania Derby winner Anak Nakal, and Forefathers, each of whom is also a Hal’s Hope nominee. Any of Zito’s four nominees could start.

There were 39 nominated to the Hal’s Hope, a race named after the only horse to win the Florida Derby (2000), then come back as an older horse to win the Gulfstream Park Handicap (2002).

Hal’s Hope was bred, owned and trained by Harold Rose, an octogenarian at the time of those major victories.

Harold has since passed away but the family silks could be in the starting gate because his son Barry nominated Rexson’s Rose to the Hal’s Hope. Bred and owned by the family stable and trained by Harold’s son Barry, Rexson’s Rose will be a sentimental longshot.

Sentiment may also play a part in the fortunes of Delightful Kiss, the one horse in the charge of former rider Pete Anderson. A big gray gelding who runs in the orange silks of Hobeau Farm, Delightful Kiss won at Gulfstream Park in 2007, just before scoring Derby victories in Ohio and Iowa.

Spectacular Bid was a champion each year he raced, as a 2-year-old in 1978; as a 3-year-old when his stakes victories included a sweep of Gulfstream Park’s Hutcheson, Fountain of Youth and Florida Derby, which preceded tallies in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness; and again at 4 when he was named Horse of the Year following an undefeated campaign of nine starts with major victories on both coasts, including the Santa Anita Handicap and the Woodward Stakes.

Big shoes to fill for the winner of this year’s Spectacular Bid Stakes.

Nominations closed with the racing office being left with a list of 18 horses, each of whose connections have hopes that a victory here will lead them to a Florida Derby berth and beyond.

The biggest money winner of those nominated is Silent Valor, who Todd Pletcher trains for Let’s Go Stable. Pletcher has been atop the trainer standings at the conclusion of the last five Gulfstream Park meetings.

Silent Valor was shooting for the moon when he bobbled at the break, never got untracked and finished eighth at 16-1 in his last start, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Santa Anita on Oct. 25. He had won the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Aug. 31.

John Dillon’s Vinnies Wild Tale has won his last two starts following a rookie-like performance in his debut. The first of those wins came at Saratoga Aug. 14, followed by an emphatic tally at Calder Sept. 14. The gelding has looked sharp while working with regularity at Gulfstream in recent weeks.