Five graded stakes top program at Gulfstream

HALLANDALE BEACH — Gulfstream Park has offered a quantity of stakes the first two weeks of the winter meeting. The Claiming Crown and Clasico Internacional del Caribe offered full fields but the competitors, with a few exceptions, were not genuine stakes caliber.

Quality comes to the fore Saturday with five Grade 3 events, the first graded stakes of the season. There’s also plenty of variety.

The Harlan’s Holiday goes at a mile and a sixteenth on the main track. The Rampart is a mile on the dirt for fillies and mares. The Tropical Turf and My Charmer are each a mile on the grass, the latter restricted to fillies and mares. Females also will be featured in the six-furlong Sugar Swirl.

The Harlan’s Holiday was supposed to be the final prep for the $16 million Pegasus for Gunnevera, winner of the Fountain of Youth and third in the Florida Derby. But his connections opted to skip this race and train up to the world’s richest race on Jan. 27.

Mr. Jordan, coming off an 11½ -length win in a restricted stakes at Gulfstream West, is likely to vie for the role of favorite with Destin from Todd Pletcher’s barn. Mr. Jordan, trained by Eddie Plesa Jr., is an eighttime winner but has been shut out of the winner’s circle in eight Gulfstream starts.

Destin, beaten a nose in the 2016 Belmont Stakes, captured the Breeders’ Cup Marathon two starts back. He subsequently disappointed in the Grade 1 Clark at Churchill Downs but gets class relief in the Harlan’s Holiday. Pletcher said a strong effort in the Harlan’s Holiday could propel Destin into the Pegasus.

Page McKenny, a winner of more than $1.7 million, mostly on the Mid-Atlantic circuit, ships in as does Fear the Cowboy, winner of the Skip Away last spring. After that Fear the Cowboy hit the road, racing in stakes at six tracks with his only victory in the West Virginia Governor’s Stakes.

Curlin’s Approval, second in last season’s Rampart, could be odds-on in this season’s renewal. She lost all chance with a stumbling start in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff Sprint but returns to her favorite track, where she’s 7-for-10, including multiple stakes. Challengers include Lewis Bay, who has won or placed in seven graded stakes. She hasn’t been out in 13 months, but Eclipse champion trainer Chad Brown is known for having horses ready to run off a layoff.

The Sugar Swirl’s defending champion, Dearest, also is likely to be a short price. She tired late in a couple of stakes since but those were at 7 furlongs. From four starts at 6 and 6½ furlongs, she has three wins and a second.

Four-time stakes winner On Leave from the Shug McGaughey barn is the one to beat in the My Charmer. She rallied for third in a 14-horse field on the undercard of the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar last out and won a stakes at Laurel prior to that.

The Tropical Turf appears to a shootout among top trainers Pletcher, Brown and Christophe Clement. Pletcher, who has already won four races on a card twice this season, sends out All Included, winner of the Appleton over the course on Florida Derby Day. Brown has Camelot Kitten, a four-time stakes winner in 2016 but 0-for-3 this year. Clement is represented by French-bred Blacktype, a wide trip fourth last time out but a winner of his two previous starts, including the Grade 2 Knickerbocker at Belmont.

First post is noon. The Rampart, the first of the stakes, is carded as the fifth race, a few minutes past 2 p.m.