Fortin Hill resurfaces after 18-month layoff

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Early arrivals on Fountain of Youth weekend might find the pickin’s a little slim Friday at Gulfstream Park, although there is one race – and one horse in particular – that could be of interest to horseplayers.

Fortin Hill, a lightly raced 6-year-old with a triple-digit Beyer Speed Figure jumping off his past-performance page, is an obvious wild card in the Friday feature, a $62,000 second-level race that’s the only allowance of the day.

One of the conditions allows horses that have not won a race in six months to enter. That’s how Fortin Hill, who has gone unraced since August 2020, made the field. He has won three of five starts, including a Belmont Park allowance in which he earned a 101 Beyer on July 4, 2020.

Owned by the OXO Equine of Larry Best, Fortin Hill was sent by his new trainer, Bill Mott, in November to Payson Park, where the horse has registered six works since mid-January. Fortin Hill had been trained by Chad Brown before Best and Brown parted ways, with Fortin Hill among the OXO horses sent to Taylor Made in Kentucky ahead of the resumption of his racing career.

Jose Ortiz has the call on Fortin Hill from post 1 in a six-furlong race that drew five other older horses. Catch That Party, Where Paradise Lay, and Quick Tempo are in for an optional $62,500 claiming tag, while Lugamo makes it in via the “never won two other than” clause and Rough Entry, a six-time winner, qualifies in the same manner as Fortin Hill.

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Fortin Hill surely will be a stout favorite, but Rough Entry (post 3, Jose Morelos) or Quick Tempo (post 6, Luis Saez) appear capable of upsetting him if he doesn’t return the same horse.

The feature goes as the eighth of 10 races on a Friday card and therefore is part of a 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 5-10) expected to offer a gross pool of at least $200,000, assuming the jackpot wasn’t emptied Wednesday or Thursday by a solo winning ticket.

First post is 1:05 p.m. Eastern, with the feature set for 4:40. A $34,000 starter-optional on the Tapeta directly follows as race 9.

A firm turf and fast main track can be expected given the lack of rain in the local forecast from noontime Wednesday through Friday.