Stars prep for rich stakes at Gulfstream

The rich Pegasus stakes are producing residual benefits for Gulfstream Park.

The end of the year is generally a down period for horse racing as the stars take a breather before the new season.

However, with the $9 million Pegasus dirt stakes and its new companion, a $7 million turf stakes, a little more than a month away, Saturday’s stakes have attracted top-caliber horses pointing toward the two richest races in North America.

Todd Pletcher has had a ring around the Harlan’s Holiday for months as the final Pegasus tune-up for Florida Derby champion Audible. He couldn’t have wound up in a less demanding spot. Audible will face only five challengers, one a stablemate. None have credentials approaching Audible’s.

As a result, the Harlan’s Holiday has been programmed as the fifth race to keep it out of the Rainbow Six and other multi-race exotic bets later on the card.

Audible came back from a six-month layoff after a third in the Kentucky Derby with an easy victory in a minor stakes on the Breeders’ Cup undercard. In the Harlan’s Holiday he will stretch from seven furlongs to a mile and 1⁄16 enroute to the mile and 1⁄8 of the Pegasus. Javier Castellano, who has been aboard in four of Audible’s starts, will again ride.

While the Harlan’s Holiday is a one-horse showcase, another of the five stakes on the card, the Fort Lauderdale, is wide open. Five Grade 1 winners are among the 16 entered — only 14 will be allowed to start — in the 11⁄8-mile audition for the Pegasus Turf.

Pletcher has one of the favorites, Hi Happy, who won last spring’s Pan American on Gulfstream’s infield. He followed with a triumph in the Grade 1 Man O War at Belmont. Most recently he was prominent early in the Breeders’ Cup Turf before fading to ninth.

Glorious Empire had back-to-back stakes wins at Saratoga, including the Grade 1 Sword Dancer, this past summer before he, too, misfired in the BC Turf after setting the pace. The winner, Enable, is widely considered the best horse in the world.

Chad Brown, who seems to win almost every turf stakes in America, has two contenders, Almanaar, winner of the 2017 Grade 1 Gulfstream Turf Handicap, and Projected, who has been in the money in six straight stakes.

Divisidero, winner of the Grade 1 Turf Classic on the 2017 Kentucky Derby undercard, returns to his preferred distance after missing by less than a length in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Quarteto de Cordis took his Grade 1 in his native Brazil but never contended at the Breeders’ Cup.

The other three stakes are Grade 3’s for fillies and mares: The six-furlong Sugar Swirl and one mile Rampart on the main track and the one mile My Charmer on the turf.