HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Colonel Liam was well on his way to becoming a 2021 Eclipse Award nominee when he threw in a clunker in early June that proved a catalyst to ending his season. Colonel Liam’s absence from the list of male-turf finalists as a Pegasus World Cup Turf winner was a first. Bricks and Mortar won the inaugural Pegasus Turf in 2019 en route to a Horse of the Year title, and Zulu Alpha won the second in 2020 and became a divisional Eclipse nominee. Whether the winner of the fourth Pegasus Turf on Saturday at Gulfstream Park enters the 2022 Eclipse discussion is a subject for much further down the road. Of far more immediate concern is who will win the Grade 1, $1 million race, and if you happen to know that, well, go ahead and give us the exacta and trifecta, too. Therein lies the quest for horseplayers here in South Florida and elsewhere in determining whether Colonel Liam, the 3-1 morning-line favorite for the 1 1/8-mile race, has been suitably prepared by Todd Pletcher to defend his title. It would be another feather in the cap of a newly minted Hall of Fame trainer to get a horse returning from a layoff of nearly eight months to prevail in such a major event. “It would be awesome,” conceded Pletcher, the 18-time Gulfstream training champion who was inducted into the Hall in August. “We feel good about everything going into it. We’ll just keep our fingers crossed for a good trip and hopefully he can come with another big effort.” Colonel Liam, a 5-year-old horse owned by Robert and Lawana Low, will have Irad Ortiz Jr. back aboard when he breaks from post 6 in a race expected to be run over a course with a bit of give to it. Eight workouts since early December at Pletcher’s winter base at Palm Beach Downs are the foundation the gray son of Liam’s Map will be looking to build upon in his first start since an eighth-place finish in the June 5 Manhattan at Belmont Park helped bring a premature end to his 2021. He trained on afterward, only for Pletcher to pull the plug when dissatisfied with how the horse was going. “I think over the years we’ve done pretty well in layoff situations,” said Pletcher. “It was important that we got the works into him that we did, and we were fortunate enough that everything went according to the way we mapped it out. I feel good about that.” Last year in the Pegasus Turf, Colonel Liam was coming off a victory in the Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream when he faced older stakes horses for the first time in defeating his Pletcher stablemate Largent by a neck. A similar scenario presents itself here with Never Surprised (post 12, Luis Saez), a speedy 4-year-old making his first start versus older rivals following a 6 1/4-length romp in the Dec. 26 Tropical Park Derby. Never Surprised, the second program choice at 7-2, has been first or second in all seven of his starts, all for Pletcher and Repole Stable. “The key is trying to get him to settle and relax,” said Pletcher. “He’s a free-running horse. We’ll have to see how much other speed goes with him, but he’s kind of shown that he’s able to get into that high cruising speed and keep going.” If Pletcher is to be denied, it’s quite possible the spoiler will be Mike Maker, whose success with older turf horses in the last decade or so has been nearly unmatched. Maker sends out the foursome of Atone (post 2, Javier Castellano), Flavius (post 3, Paco Lopez), Field Pass (post 9, Umberto Rispoli), and Cross Border (post 11, Reylu Gutierrez). It was Maker who stood in the winner’s circle two years ago after Zulu Alpha scored at nearly 12-1. :: Want the best bonus in racing? Get a $250 deposit match, $10 free bet, and free Formulator with DRF Bets. Code: WINNING Other possibilities in a terrific cast include Sacred Life (post 8, Jose Ortiz), a steady closer with a record of true consistency for Chad Brown; Hit the Road (post 5, Tyler Gaffalione), the lone California representative and a winner of the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile last March; and Doswell (post 7, Junior Alvarado), a sharp last-out winner of the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale over the local course for Barclay Tagg. Hit the Road, said trainer Dan Blacker, “is a really special horse.” “I always had confidence that he could be a top-level horse, but you never know,” Blacker said. “To have him go and win a Grade 1, it was more than I could have hoped for, a real thrill.” Rounding out the lineup are Space Traveller, March to the Arch, and Channel Cat. The Pegasus Turf directly precedes the $3 million Pegasus as the 11th of 12 races. It will be shown live on the 90-minute NBC broadcast (4:30-6 p.m. Eastern) with post time set for 4:49.