Pletcher has favorites in Fort Lauderdale and Harlan's Holiday on five-stakes card

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Todd Pletcher appears to have the strongest hand in the two most important races on Saturday’s excellent 11-race program at Gulfstream Park when he sends out Channel Cat and Prince Lucky as the likely favorites in the $200,000 Fort Lauderdale and $100,000 Harlan’s Holiday. The Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale and Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday serve as preps for the Pegasus World Cup Turf and Pegasus World Cup, respectively, on Jan. 25.

Saturday’s card has five stakes races, four of them graded, and a noon post time.

Channel Cat is the class of the field for the nine-furlong Fort Lauderdale on the turf, having run in five Grade 1 races this year including the Breeders’ Cup Turf in his last start. The stretch-running Channel Cat, whose most effective performances have come around three turns, rallied from the rear of the field to finish seventh, beaten just 2 1/2 lengths in the Breeders’ Cup Turf by division champion and Horse of the Year candidate Bricks and Mortar. Bricks and Mortar won the inaugural Pegasus World Cup Turf here last January.

“He’s training super. He came out of the Breeders’ Cup in good shape. I actually thought he ran a pretty credible race,” Pletcher said. “We’re going to shorten him up here and see how he likes that, with the idea it could put him in position to possibly go in the Pegasus Turf if he proves effective at a mile and one-eighth.”

A victory by Channel Cat in the Fort Lauderdale would push his earnings, which stand at $894,792, over the $1 million mark, all for owner-breeder Calumet Farm.

Channel Cat will have to concede weight to all but one of his eight rivals under the allowance conditions of the Fort Lauderdale, toting 126 pounds with John Velazquez aboard.

Marzo, one of three members of the field from the barn of trainer Mike Maker, will also carry 126 pounds as a result of his victory in the Grade 3 Sycamore at Keeneland on Oct. 17. Maker will also send out Cross Border, a winner of four of his last five starts, and Exulting.

Trainer Chad Brown will be represented by Instilled Regard and Flavius. Instilled Regard, third in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby in his 3-year-old finale last December at Del Mar, is winless in three starts this season, while Flavius finished fourth as the 8-5 favorite making his U.S. debut under allowance conditions last month at Aqueduct.

Up the Ante could benefit from the overall lack of speed in the field, especially if able to repeat the effort that saw him finish second after making all the pace in the Grade 3 Saranac at Saratoga during the summer of 2018.

Prince Lucky comes into the Harlan’s Holiday off a troubled fourth-place finish behind likely 3-year-old champion Maximum Security in the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap seven weeks ago. Prince Lucky is perfect locally, having posted one-sided and well-graded victories in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile and Grade 3 Hal’s Hope, both at one mile here last winter.

“He was 2 for 2 here early in the year, so we were thinking if he could be a Pegasus horse, then how would we get here?” Pletcher said. “We felt the Bold Ruler was sort of a bridge to get us to the Harlan’s Holiday, which would be an opportunity for him to run two turns at Gulfstream for the first time, to see how he handles it and see if he earns his way into the Pegasus.”

Prince Lucky may have to share top billing in the 1 1/16-mile Harlan’s Holiday with Bodexpress, who returns to the scene of his finest hour, a second-place finish as a maiden behind Maximum Security at odds of 71-1 in the Grade 1 Florida Derby more than eight months ago.

Trainer Gustavo Delgado is using the Harlan’s Holiday as a possible stepping-stone to the Pegasus World Cup for the steadily improving Bodexpress, who is coming off a track-record performance winning a one-mile allowance race last month at Gulfstream Park West. The win was the second in as many starts on the comeback trail for Bodexpress, who was given the summer off after participating in the first two legs of this year’s Triple Crown as a maiden.

“If he finishes first or second, he’ll go to the Pegasus, that is the plan,” said Delgado. “The horse has been good since he went to the farm. He’s come back strong and more focused.”

War Story is the oldest and richest member of the eight horses who will contest the Harlan’s Holiday. The 7-year-old gelding, who was recently transferred to trainer Elizabeth Dobles's barn at Palm Meadows, has banked over $2.9 million from 37 career starts, with his most important victory coming in the Grade 2 Brooklyn at Belmont in 2017.

The graded stakes-placed Realm, speedy Flowers for Lisa, Eye of a Jedi, Red Crescent, and Phat Man complete the lineup.