Pletcher will be well represented in upcoming stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – With the Gulfstream Park Championship meet now in full swing, who better to check in with for an update than Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher, who again comes to town loaded for the winter season with a star-studded group of young and older horses.

The lengthy list of graded stakes winners features soon-to-be-named juvenile champion Fierceness, whose long-range goal here is the $1 million Florida Derby on March 30.

Pletcher started only one horse over the first three days of the new session but will pick up the pace this weekend with the versatile stakes winner Noted topping the list. Noted defeated Dornoch in Monmouth Park’s Sapling on dirt and subsequently was second by a nose in the Grade 2 Bourbon over the turf at Keeneland. He has since finished last in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile but figures to go postward a heavy favorite when returning to the grass and making his 2-year-old finale in Saturday’s $100,000 Pulpit Stakes.

Pletcher already has several of his stars penciled in for graded stakes later this month, including Dynamic One, Gasoline, and possibly Grand Aspen for the Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday on Dec. 30, a race that could serve as a possible stepping-stone for all three to the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational four weeks later. Pletcher said he also plans to start both Gran Sonata and Jerry the Nipper in the Grade 2 Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 30, hoping they’ll perform well enough to earn a starting spot in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf on Jan. 27 alongside Grade 1 winner Annapolis, who he will train up to the race.

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Dynamic One took another step on the comeback trail when shipping to Gulfstream from Palm Beach Downs to work five furlongs in 1:00.62 with Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard last Friday. Dynamic One, winner of the Grade 2 Suburban in 2022 but idle since finishing sixth in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup later that summer, continued out six panels under some urging in 1:14.40.

“We gave him time off after the Gold Cup for what was supposed to be a short break that turned out being longer than we expected,” Pletcher said. “He seems to be rounding back to form. We’ve got our eye on the Harlan’s Holiday with the Pegasus in mind. He’s shown, at times, he’s capable of that but he’s going to have to earn his way in there so to speak.”

As for Fierceness, he is already back galloping at Palm Beach Downs after a short and well-deserved break following his dominant 6 1/4-length triumph in the BC Juvenile at Santa Anita five weeks ago.

“He’s gone back to the track close enough to the Breeders’ Cup that we didn’t have to let him down completely,” Pletcher said. “He’ll probably start breezing around December 15, and if everything goes the way we hope, we’ll target the Holy Bull [on Feb. 3] and then the Florida Derby. The spacing is perfect between the two races, as is the five weeks to the Kentucky Derby after that, and is a plan that’s worked out well for us in the past.”

Maker has strong hand

A $35,000 claiming race scheduled to be run at 1 1/16 miles on the turf highlights Friday’s card.

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The race drew a full and well-matched field of 12 starters with the uncoupled stablemates Eyes On Target and Fighter in the Win giving trainer Mike Maker a strong hand.

Eyes On Target earned a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure when beaten a neck under high-priced optional-claiming and allowance conditions over the local course one year ago but found himself racing with a price tag on his head for the first time this summer at Saratoga where he was claimed from Maker for $25,000 out of a winning effort by trainer Linda Rice. He was subsequently taken back by Maker when wheeling back under a $32,000 tag on Oct. 6 at Aqueduct.

Fighter in the Win drops into the selling ranks for the first time following a steady diet of allowance races that included a sixth-place finish at Aqueduct in his most recent start Oct. 25.

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