HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mentee launched his career in sensational fashion, setting a five-furlong track record at Aqueduct as a 2-year-old while defeating a future stakes winner, Colloquial, in the process. It was a fitting beginning for the younger brother of the four-time Grade 1 winner Fierceness.Unfortunately, things have not panned out as owner Mike Repole and trainer Todd Pletcher would have liked. But hopes are high the son of City of Light can still live up to early expectations at Gulfstream Park on Friday, when he returns from an extended layoff in the afternoon’s $87,000 co-feature.The five-furlong turf race, which will be decided under high-priced optional-claiming and second-level allowance conditions, is the finale on a 10-race program. The card also includes a slightly softer conditioned and lower-priced optional-claiming and allowance dash on the grass for 3-year-old fillies.Mentee is one of only two horses, along with Cairo Caper, in the field of nine not entered for the $125,000 claiming price, a seldom-written condition around these parts. Mentee is also far and away the least-seasoned member of a lineup that includes stakes winner Asher’s Edge and the multiple stakes-placed Mattingly.Mentee has started just three times since his auspicious debut and not since November 2024. His career was briefly interrupted at 2 due to a brief bout with laminitis that forced him to miss a scheduled start in the Sanford Stakes at Saratoga. Following a disappointing return in the Grade 1 Hopeful, Pletcher switched Mentee to the turf and was rewarded with an easy, 3 1/2-length victory over stablemate Gate to Wire in the Grade 3 Futurity at Aqueduct.Mentee earned an automatic berth into the one-mile Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf by virtue of his Futurity win, only to finish a well-beaten and very disappointing 12th in what would be his final appearance before launching his comeback here Friday.“It seems he’s had just about everything and anything that could possibly go wrong since then,” Pletcher said when asked about the long layoff. “He’s had all sorts of issues. Thankfully, all is good now and he’s been training with consistency.“It’s not easy to find the perfect spot to come back in off that kind of a layoff, but he did run well fresh in his debut and hopefully he’s ready to get his season underway.”When asked if Mentee could possibly return to the main track later this season, Pletcher said he won’t rule anything out moving forward. “He beat a really nice horse on the dirt in his first start, although I’d have to stay his best race thus far has been on the grass,” Pletcher said.Cairo Caper will try to snap a nine race winless streak dating back to his victory in the Soaring Free Stakes going 6 1/2 furlongs over the Woodbine turf during the summer of 2024. Second in the Grade 3 Penn Mile last summer at Penn National, Cairo Caper will be making his first start locally and first since being transferred to trainer Katerina Vassilieva at the end of his 2025 campaign.Asher’s Edge owns the most recent victory by any member of Friday’s lineup, a 2 3/4-length triumph in the Bob Umphrey Turf Sprint here on Sept. 20. That race was switched from turf to the synthetic Tapeta course due to weather conditions.Asher’s Edge has finished fourth in both the Janus Stakes and Gulfstream Park Turf Sprint in his two most recent tries over the local course, defeated less than two lengths on each occasion.Like Mentee, Mattingly will be returning from an extended vacation. He has been idle since finishing a non-menacing 10th following an eventful start in the Harvey Pack Stakes last July at Saratoga. Mattingly will be making his first start locally since dominating a conditioned allowance event by 3 1/4 lengths here last April.◗ Pletcher reports that Gate to Wire is just about ready to return from a lengthy layoff of his own. Gate to Wire was a runaway five-length winner of the seven-furlong Swale Stakes while making his main-track debut here last winter but has been idle since finishing third in the Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga on July 25.“He’s looking good, training well, and could return in a similarly conditioned allowance as the one Mentee runs in Friday, going 6 1/2 furlongs on the main track. That’s in the book on March 27,” said Pletcher.