HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – While Grade 1 winner Nakatomi will be heavily favored if he goes in Saturday’s $140,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint and trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. will have four of the other six starters in the race, it is Gordian Knot who may prove the most intriguing member of the lineup. Gordian Knot, a five-time stakes winner who finished third in the Grade 2 Gallant Bob in 2023, will make his first start since switching to Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn late last season. Idle since a disappointing ninth-place finish in the Parx Sprint on Sept. 21, Gordian Knot, a homebred son of Social Inclusion owned by Joe Imbesi, has been training forwardly for his return at the Palm Beach Downs Training Center in Delray, Fla. “We’ve had him a couple of months and he’s been training steadily for us all winter,” Pletcher said. “He comes out and trains well every day, and we feel like this is a good starting point for him. Mr. Imbesi feels like six furlongs is probably his best distance, so we’ll focus on as many of those races as we can.” Joseph entered the quartet of Swirvin, Okiro, Concrete Glory, and Comedy Town in the Gulfstream Park Sprint and said that as of Wednesday he plans to run them all. Comedy Town is the strongest of the group, having won the Smile Sprint and Benny the Bull within a seven-week span here last summer. He is coming off a game but frustrating second-place finish launching his 2025 campaign last month against statebreds in the Sunshine Sprint. :: Get Gulfstream Park Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day. Statebreds steal the show Florida-breds will meet Friday in a pair of $54,000 optional-claiming and allowance races, the first for 3-year-old fillies going a mile and 70 yards over the Tapeta course, the second to be decided at one mile over the turf by older horses. Miss Mary Nell and Right Angle are the only multiple winners among the seven fillies entered in Friday’s sixth race, with Right Angle a major question mark while trying to stretch her speed beyond 5 1/2 furlongs for the first time. Distance should not be an issue for Miss Mary Nell, who has already registered a pair of victories around two turns, the first on the turf when winning her maiden in August, the second going a mile and 70 yards against open starter-allowance and optional-claiming competition in her juvenile finale. Right Angle figures to be part of a very honest pace that should also include Spirited Boss, who must pass a distance test exiting a one-sided and relatively well-graded maiden special weight victory going 5 1/2 furlongs Jan. 15 for trainer Jose D’Angelo. Spirited Boss will be joined in the lineup by stablemate Mojo Rising, who joined the barn subsequent to capturing her only previous start over the synthetic track at Woodbine with trainer Kevin Attard two months earlier. :: Play Gulfstream Park with confidence! DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports available now. La Gioconda also figures to have a hand in the early pace while returning to a more suitable spot after being dueled into submission after six furlongs in the Sweetest Chant Stakes on turf. A lively pace scenario also seems likely in the co-featured eighth event with Into You, Themanupfront, and Awesome Beast all figuring to have a large say in the early running. Awesome Beast will be stretching out around two turns for the first time. Both Jack Kerouac and Grande Soiree could prove the beneficiaries if things get out of hand on the front end. Jack Kerouac rallied from off the pace to a pair of victories, one at Tampa Bay Downs and the second at Del Mar, during his 2024 campaign. Grande Soiree also seems capable of rating off the early leaders and making one late run if at his best. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.