Channel Cat the class of Fort Lauderdale

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Saturday’s 63rd renewal of the $200,000 Fort Lauderdale Stakes will have a pretty big act to follow. Namely, the 62nd edition of the 1 1/8-mile Fort Lauderdale, which brought together a 13-horse field that included five Grade 1 or Group 1 winners including three horses exiting the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Turf six weeks earlier.

Glorious Empire led throughout under jockey Edgar Prado to win last year’s Fort Lauderdale, finishing 2 1/2 lengths in front of multiple Grade 2 winner Qurbaan and three lengths better than trainer Todd Pletcher’s Grade 1 winner Hi Happy. The Fort Lauderdale is a Grade 2 stakes, but last year’s field made a case to upgrade it to Grade 1.

Pletcher will send out the only member of this year’s Fort Lauderdale lineup to have competed in the Breeders’ Cup in Channel Cat, who will be the likely favorite in the race, one of five stakes on Saturday’s card. Channel Cat finished seventh, only 2 1/4 lengths behind undisputed division leader Bricks and Mortar, after racing wide and rallying mildly from the rear of the field in the 1 1/2-mile Breeders’ Cup Turf. Channel Cat finished third in two Grade 1 stakes this year, the Sword Dancer at Saratoga and United Nations at Monmouth Park.

Channel Cat’s competition will include the trio of Cross Border, Exulting, and Marzo from the barn of trainer Mike Maker, and two each from trainers Chad Brown (Flavius and Instilled Regard) and Brian Lynch (Admission Office and Spooky Channel). Up the Ante also is in the field.

Cross Border has won four of his last five starts, with his lone setback during that streak a fifth-place finish in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational in fall at Belmont Park.

“Cross Border has a will to win I’d like to see in every horse,” Maker said. “This is a big jump up from what he’s been running against, but he ran a great race in the Turf Classic and deserves the opportunity.”

Exulting won a stakes on dirt earlier in the season before switching to grass late in summer.

“He’s had some good races but tough luck since we switched him over to the turf,” Maker said. “His last race, I thought he was a stone-cold winner when he suddenly spooked from something in the stretch.”

Marzo won the Grade 3 Sycamore at Keeneland on Oct, 17 before finishing eighth five weeks later in the Grade 3 Red Smith at Aqueduct.

“He had a bit of a rough trip in the Red Smith, so I’m just putting a line through that race,” Maker said.

Pletcher also will send out likely favorite Prince Lucky in Saturday’s Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday, which serves as a prep for the Pegasus World Cup on Jan. 25. The Harlan’s Holiday also features the first local start for Bodexpress since his second-place finish in the $1 million Florida Derby nearly nine months earlier.

Also in the lineup are Eye of a Jedi, Flowers for Lisa, Phat Man, Realm, Red Crescent, and War Story.