When Colonel Liam won the Tropical Park Derby at Gulfstream Park in December 2020, he did so off a 133-day layoff. When Colonel Liam won the Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf at Gulfstream in January 2022, he did so off a 238-day freshening. For his next mission, Colonel Liam will try to win Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Fort Lauderdale Stakes at Gulfstream having not raced in 280 days. Adding to the degree of difficulty, Colonel Liam will start from post 12 in a field limited to that many starters, but which drew 13 entrants. Trainer Todd Pletcher is using the Fort Lauderdale as a way to get Colonel Liam to the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 28, a race Colonel Liam has won the last two years. Colonel Liam hasn’t run since a ninth-place finish in the Dubai Turf at Meydan in March. He worked twice in May with an eye toward the Manhattan at Belmont Park in June before Pletcher pulled the plug. “He wasn’t doing as well as he was before we went to Dubai so we kind of a did a physical on him and he needed some time, basically,” Pletcher said. Pletcher had Colonel Liam entered in a Dec. 15 allowance at Gulfstream, but he wound up on the also-eligible list and then the race came off the turf and was run on Tapeta, so Pletcher targeted the Fort Lauderdale. Colonel Liam has breezed eight times at Palm Beach Downs leading up to his return. :: Get ready for Gulfstream Park racing with DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports.  “He’s a pretty willing horse to train; you can turn him on when you need to,” Pletcher said. “We’ve asked him to put in some good works to get him ready for this. He’s shown in the past he’s capable of firing off the layoff.” Pletcher said Colonel Liam is “tactical enough” to overcome the outside post. Irad Ortiz Jr. rides. Colonel Liam’s off-the-pace style could be helped by the presence of plenty of front-runners in this field. Kentucky Ghost will seek to rebound off a non-effort in the Grade 2 Seabiscuit Handicap at Del Mar for trainer Vicki Oliver. In May, he won the Cliffhanger Stakes at Monmouth Park three weeks after being vanned off following the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs. The New York-bred City Man is a four-time stakes winner in 2022, which may explain why he is the starting co-highweight of 126 pounds along with Grade 3 Knickerbocker winner King Cause. Shadow Sphinx and Pao Alto, second and third in the one-mile Artie Schiller at Aqueduct, are other contenders in the Fort Lauderdale, which goes as race 9 on the 11-race card. Suwannee River Stakes Lady Rockstar showed stakes-caliber talent winning allowance races at Churchill and Belmont in the spring. After finishing fifth as the favorite in the Grade 3 Matchmaker at Monmouth in July, Lady Rockstar was sent to the sidelines by trainer Brendan Walsh. Saturday, she returns with a chance to attain her first stakes win in the Grade 3, $125,000 Suwannee River going a mile on turf. Walsh said Lady Rockstar came out of the Matchmaker “a little jarred up” and was given time off. She has a steady worktab for her return though Walsh fears “the mile might be as sharp as she wants on Saturday but it’s a good place to start her back anyway.” Irad Ortiz Jr. rides Lady Rockstar from post 10. :: Get Gulfstream Park Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day.  Walsh also sends out Keeper of Time, who finished fourth to Sweet Melania in this race to end her 2021 campaign. Sweet Melania was sent out by Todd Pletcher, a three-time Suwannee River winner, who Saturday sends out Scotish Star. The Argentine-bred mare won a second-level allowance going a mile at Saratoga in August before getting beat a head in a 1 1/16-mile allowance at Keeneland in October. She figures to be on the lead breaking from the rail under Luis Saez. “I do think a mile is the perfect distance for her,” Pletcher said. “She has natural speed and her style should suit the Gulfstream course well, and with that draw she should be able to work out a trip.” Stolen Holiday, front-running winner of the Eatontown at Monmouth in June, could be a pace factor from post 7. Bay Storm is a stakes-winning sprinter attempting to stretch out to a mile for the first time. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.