Pegasus Preview Day storms down the stretch Saturday with 5 stakes serving as preps for Gulfstream Park’s January 25 signature card. The tune-ups range in purses from $140,000-$215,000 and are topped by the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale over 1-1/8 miles on the grass. That lead-in springboards prospects toward the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf. As for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup, the local prep Saturday is the Harlan’s Holiday Stakes. For more on that one, check out our Race of the Week analysis later this week.
Saturday’s Gulfstream Park and Laurel Park cards also will be part of an Exacta-Thon promotion with 1/ST BET and Xpressbet.
Let’s meet the contenders for the Fort Lauderdale Stakes (Race 10):
#1-CASH EQUITY: First of 3 Saffie Joseph Jr. entries in the field, he’s yet to win in 9 starts since coming to the barn 13 months ago. Graded stakes-placed at Del Mar and Kentucky Downs, the 6-year-old seeks his first career stakes win. Well-traveled from France to Barbados, he’ll make his first appearance on the Gulfstream Park lawn. He rank fourth on the Tapeta here in January.
#2-GRAND SONATA: Last year’s Fort Lauderdale fourth-place finisher won both the Dania Beach and Grade 3 Kitten’s Joy over this Gulfstream lawn in 2022. Trainer Todd Pletcher, a 3-time winner of this race, adds blinkers to the 5-year-old by Medaglia d’Oro. Grand Sonata won the Grade 2 Kentucky Turf Cup in September at Kentucky Downs before a non-threatening 11th of 13 in the Breeders’ Cup Turf. He’s bagged a field-best $2,045,235 lifetime. Tyler Gaffalione returns in the saddle.
#3-SARATOGA FLASH: March’s Appleton Stakes runner-up snapped a 7-race losing streak most recently October 18 with a drop into the allowance ranks. Front-runner has a solid 5-for-7 local turf mark finishing in the exacta for Saffie Joseph Jr. Jockey Micah Husbands was aboard for the recent victory and looks for his first North American stakes victory.
#4-MAJOR DUDE: Gulfstream’s 2023 Grade 3 Kitten’s Joy winner added the Grade 2 Penn Mile during his sophomore campaign. His 4-year-old season didn’t start until June and includes a pair of allowance victories in 4 starts. Red-hot jockey Irad Ortiz Jr. enjoyed 4 and 5-win days last week at Gulfstream and was this colt’s go-to pilot during that 2023 stakes run. Ortiz won the 2019 Fort Lauderdale, while trainer Todd Pletcher is a 3-time winner of this race.
#5-WIN FOR THE MONEY: Grade 1 Woodbine Mile winner never factored in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar in his follow-up effort. But the Mark Casse trainee should fit well at this class and easily won the listed Mr. Steele Stakes over this turf course in May – and was disqualified from victory for interference in his only other Gulfstream grass effort in 2023. Top NYRA pilot Dylan Davis will be wintering at Gulfstream Park and has the call for the first time.
#6-LORENZ: Brazilian export got his first US stakes victory last out in the Remington Green in September. The Saffie Joseph Jr. trainee returns freshened from back-to-back wins and makes his first graded stakes bid stateside. He did win at the Group 3 level in Brazil. Drayden Van Dyke is 2-for-2 aboard this Forestry 6-year-old and returns in the irons.
#7-SIEGE OF BOSTON: Jimmy Toner trainee has lost 10 straight, but has been nibbling around stakes glory with top-4 finishes at Gulfstream, Tampa, Churchill, Monmouth, Kentucky Downs and Ellis Park during that span. Runner-up locally in the Grade 3 Canadian Turf in March and is an allowance winner in his only other run over the Gulfstream green. Jorge Ruiz rides.
#8-FORT WASHINGTON: Dead-heat winner this summer of the Grade 3 Monmouth Stakes represents Hall of Fame connections in Shug McGaughey and John Velazquez – but neither has won the Fort Lauderdale, a race with more than 70 years of history. Sixth in the 2023 Fort Lauderdale, this horse by War Front finished third locally in the ’23 Grade 3 Canadian Turf and listed Appleton Stakes. Exits a third-place finish in Aqueduct’s Artie Schiller and has top-4 finishes in 4 of his last 5 starts.
#9-EMMANUEL (pictured): Back-to-back winner of Gulfstream’s Grade 3 Canadian Turf looks to add to his perfect local turf record. But the former Todd Pletcher trainee has been out of the money in 3 starts since moving to Mike Maker’s barn in late summer. He’s also notched graded stakes wins at Belmont and Tampa Bay Downs. His last win at the Fort Lauderdale’s 1-1/8 miles came in the June 2022 Pennine Ridge Stakes at Belmont. Jockey Javier Castellano has won this race 4 times, including last year with an 11-1 wire-to-wire upset aboard Main Event. A win Saturday would put Emmanuel on the doorstep of $1 million in career earnings.
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