Halladay, Factor This take another step toward Pegasus Turf in Fort Lauderdale Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the Breeders’ Cup in the rearview mirror, Todd Pletcher and Brad Cox will set their sights on the next major goal for graded stakes winners Halladay and Factor This, the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 23. Both trainers are using the $200,000 Fort Lauderdale as a possible means to that end Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

The Grade 2, 1 1/8-mile Fort Lauderdale highlights an 11-race program that also includes a trio of Grade 3 races on dirt: the six furlong Sugar Swirl and one-mile Rampart for fillies and mares, along with the 1 1/16-mile Harlan’s Holiday for 3-year-olds and up, a prep for the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, also on Jan. 23. Post time for the first race on Saturday is 12:05 p.m.

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Halladay and Factor This finished sixth and eighth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Halladay set the pace for nearly seven furlongs before tiring to finish 2 1/4 length behind surprise winner Order of Australia. He came into the Mile off a wire-to-wire 1 1/4-length decision over Got Stormy in the Grade 1 Fourstardave 11 weeks earlier at Saratoga. The Fourstardave is one of three wins this year for Halladay, who is perfect in three starts over the Gulfstream turf course.

The key question for Halladay is his ability to stay the distance, as he’s yet to compete beyond 1 1/16 miles in his 15 starts.

“This is a prep with some real teeth to it,” said Pletcher, who also entered Largent in the Fort Lauderdale. “I think if either one of them were able to perform well in here it would certainly tell us that they belong in the Pegasus. We’re interested in trying to stretch [Halladay] out. We know that he’s fond of the Gulfstream course, so we felt like this was sort of a good opportunity to see how he would handle a little more distance. If this were to go really well it would put the Pegasus Turf in play, so that’s what we’re trying to find out.”

Factor This had his best chances compromised when he bobbled out of the gate in the Mile, ultimately chasing and then tiring to finish 1 1/4 lengths behind Halladay. Factor This is a three-time Grade 2 winner this year, having captured the Dinner Party at Pimlico – with a 110 Beyer Speed Figure – the Wise Dan at Churchill Downs, and Muniz Memorial at the Fair Grounds. He finished second behind Digital Age in the Old Forester Turf Classic at Churchill Downs.

Factor This and Halladay will shoulder high weight of 125 pounds in the Fort Lauderdale along with Somelikeithotbrown, who won the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap last summer at Saratoga. All three horses are at their best when on the lead, which should guarantee an honest pace and perhaps set the race up for closers like Channel Cat, Spooky Channel, or Delaware.

Channel Cat won the Grade 2 Bowling Green and finished a late-striding third for Pletcher in the Fort Lauderdale during his 2019 campaign. He makes his first start on Saturday since being transferred to trainer Jack Sisterson following a fourth-place effort going 1 1/2 miles in the Grade 2 Pan American here on March 28.

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Spooky Channel, eighth in the 2019 Fort Lauderdale, has not started since a wide running sixth-place finish in the Grade 1 Manhattan at Belmont five months ago. His most notable victory came over this course in January when he rallied to a neck decision over Cross Border in the Grade 3 McKnight.

Delaware, a Group 3 winner in his native Great Britain at 3, is winless in four starts since coming to the U.S. earlier this year. He’s coming off his best effort in North America, a third-place finish behind winner Therapist last month at Aqueduct in the Artie Schiller.

My Charmer Stakes

Fillies and mares run 1 1/16 miles over the turf a little earlier on the card in the $75,000 My Charmer.

Our Bay B Ruth returns to the scene of her finest hour, a game neck triumph in the Tropical Park Oaks a year ago. She has started just three times in 2020 with her last outing, her best, a third-place finish in the One Dreamer at Kentucky Downs.

Madita, a neck better than Our Bay B Ruth when second in the One Dreamer, figures as another key contender in the eight-horse My Charmer field. She twice placed in Group 3 stakes in her native Germany in 2019.

Other contenders include the steadily improving graded stakes-tested Lady Lawyer, and the Canadian invader Art of Almost, runner-up in the Grade 3 Maple Leaf when stretching to 10 furlongs on the synthetic main track last month at Woodbine.