Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Graded-winning crowd lines up for Fort Lauderdale
Gulfstream Park saved the best for last Saturday – and that doesn’t come close to describing just how tough the Fort Lauderdale Stakes shapes up for its 62nd running.
A full gate absolutely jammed with graded winners – including five Grade 1 or Group 1 winners, no less – will go postward amid fading daylight when the Grade 2, $200,000 Fort Lauderdale is run as the last of 11 races at the South Florida track.
Divisidero, Blacktype, Hi Happy, and Qurbaan will vie for favoritism in the 1 1/8-mile turf race, which will have a full field of 14.
Divisidero, a two-time Grade 1 victor who was a flashy winner of his career debut nearly four years ago over the Gulfstream turf, was beaten less than a length when fourth behind Expert Eye in the Breeders’ Cup Mile six weeks ago at Churchill Downs. The stretch-running 6-year-old will be in from Ocala, Fla., where he has been stabled the last few weeks.
“He’s come back from the Breeders’ Cup in great form,” trainer Kelly Rubley told Gulfstream publicity this week. “We’re hoping to have a fun year with him.”
Blacktype, trained by Christophe Clement, is on the threshold of becoming a millionaire after winning the Grade 2 Knickerbocker at Belmont in his last start. He’s a key player in this lineup, given his unbridled speed. Among the opponents whose habitual front-running tendencies may be affected by his presence is Glorious Empire, whose best efforts have come in longer events such as the Grade 1 Sword Dancer, a 1 1/2-mile race he won in August.
“He’s training super,” said Chuck Lawrence, Glorious Empire’s trainer. “It’s going to be a tough race, but to think about the Pegasus or anything else, and also with the Eclipse Awards coming up, he’s doing well so we thought we should give it a shot.”
Hi Happy faded to ninth in the longer Breeders’ Cup Turf in his last start, but trainer Todd Pletcher believes the soft going at Churchill that day may have compromised the 6-year-old Argentine-bred.
“He likes firmer ground, and hopefully we get that firmer ground here on the weekend,” Pletcher said.
Qurbaan will be making his third start in the U.S. after 13 races overseas. The Kentuckybred 5-year-old won the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin in his Stateside debut before finishing a creditable third in the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland.
Other possibilities in this crowd of talent include Projected, a Chad Brown trainee who usually runs himself deep into the mix, and the Canadian standout Mr Havercamp, a two-back runner-up in the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile.
Post time for the Fort Lauderdale, named for the city located just north of Gulfstream, is 5:06 p.m. Eastern. It’s the final leg in numerous multi-race wagers that surely will draw sizable pools, including the 20-cent Rainbow 6 (races 6-11).
Wide-open My Charmer
The sister race to the Fort Lauderdale, the one-mile My Charmer (race 9, 4:05) also is a key link in those wagers. The full lineup of fillies and mares isn’t quite as impressive as its male counterpart, but it’s similarly competitive and also should make for spirited wagering.
Capla Temptress, exiting a Grade 1 race for Team Valor International, is one of the likely favorites in a cast that also includes La Moneda, a New York-bred mare with a 6-for-10 record; I’m Betty G, who reeled off three straight wins earlier in the year; and Pas de Soucis, an Irish-bred who appears to fit well on Beyer Speed Figures and class.
This will be the 34th running of the My Charmer, which is named for the mare who produced the great Seattle Slew in 1974. The race was a longtime winter fixture at Gulfstream West before being shifted to Gulfstream last December, when On Leave prevailed for trainer Shug McGaughey.