Fort Lauderdale Overflowing With Top-Level Quality

The parity within the male turf division this season has been a boon for racing offices across the country seeking to get ample quality runners to fill their contests on the lawn. The latest beneficiary of such a trend is Gulfstream Park's Fort Lauderdale Stakes (G2T) Dec. 15, which will have five grade/group 1 winners in its overflow field of 14 entered for the 1 1/8-mile test.

Top-level winners Almanaar, Divisidero, Glorious Empire, Hi Happy, and Quarteto de Cordas are seeking to end their respective seasons on a high note. Glorious Empire, Hi Happy, and Quarteto de Cordas each enter the Fort Lauderdale after finishing off the board in the Nov. 3 Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T). Earlier on the same card, Divisidero was fourth and Almanaar 10th in the Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T).

Matthew Schera's Glorious Empire had a three-race win streak snapped in the Breeders' Cup that included back-to-back, frontrunning victories over a giving turf course at Saratoga Race Course in the Bowling Green Stakes (G2T) and Sword Dancer Stakes (G1T). The gelded son of Holy Roman Emperor set the pace for a half-mile in the Breeders' Cup Turf but gave way and was eased to the wire by jockey Julien Leparoux.

"The race in the Breeders Cup, (Leparoux) put him on the rail, and he said he just wasn't traveling as well as he was at Saratoga on the turf. The soft ground and fast pace got us, and then Julien just took care of him," trainer James "Chuck" Lawrence II said. "He's training super. 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."

With Leparoux on holiday, Lawrence awarded the mount on Glorious Empire to Hall of Famer Edgar Prado, who rode the 7-year-old to a four-length victory June 28 at Delaware Park to kick off his win streak. They will break from the rail.

Gunpowder Farms' Divisidero, like Glorious Empire based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., was never out of contention in the Mile and loomed a threat while racing five wide before coming up three-quarters of a length short at odds of 43-1.

It was the third time this year the multiple grade 1 winner had been beaten less than a length in a graded stakes. The bay son of Kitten's Joy  won the Arlington Handicap (G3T) by a half-length July 7 and was third in the 2017 edition of the Fort Lauderdale.

"He's in Ocala (Fla.) right now, and he'll head down to Gulfstream the day before the race," trainer Kelly Rubley said. "He's doing great. He's come back from the Breeders' Cup in great form, and we're hoping to have a fun year ahead with him."

Like Glorious Empire, Hi Happy was compromised by the soft going in the Turf, according to trainer Todd Pletcher. An eight-time winner with more than $1.3 million in purses, the 6-year-old son of Pure Prize finished behind that rival in both the Bowling Green and Sword Dancer.

"We were kind of unlucky to kind of catch a little bit of soft ground with him twice at Saratoga, and then the Breeders' Cup was not to his liking," Pletcher said. "We're aware that could be the case, but when you're there, you're kind of hoping maybe a different soft course he would handle better. He likes firmer ground, and, hopefully, we get that firmer ground here on the weekend."

Hi Happy went nearly 10 months between races before returning to run third—a length behind winner Heart to Heart—in the 1 1/8-mile Gulfstream Park Turf Stakes (G1T) Feb. 10. In his subsequent start, he won the 1 1/2-mile Pan American Stakes (G2T) March 31 over the same turf course and went on to take the Man o' War Stakes (G1T) in May.

"We're looking forward to the Fort Lauderdale for him as a possible prep race for the new Pegasus turf race. It seems that he ran very well here last winter, and that would be a great opportunity for him," Pletcher said. "He really ran quite well in the Gulfstream Park Turf last year first time off the bench. He's run well at a mile and a quarter, and his race in the (grade 2 Knickerbocker Stakes) was very good. I think the mile and an eighth is maybe a tick short for him, but it will hopefully sharpen him up and set him up for a possible mile-and-three-sixteenths race. He seems to like the course, and it's within his range."

Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin entered Shadwell Stable's graded stakes winner Qurbaan and Godolphin Racing's stakes winner Zennor, who, along with Revved Up, is an also-eligible for the race. Qurbaan has run twice since coming to the U.S. from France, winning the Bernard Baruch Handicap (G2T) by a nose in his debut Sept. 3 before rallying to finish third in the Oct. 6 Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes (G1T).

"He was wide, which is not always bad to be wide at Keeneland. I'm not sure sometimes if it's not better out there, but he ran very well wide and finished third and ran an excellent race. We're obviously going to a mile and an eighth, but we think he'll handle the mile and an eighth no problem," McLaughlin said. "He's doing very well."

Shadwell is also represented in the Fort Lauderdale with 2017 runner-up Almanaar, who went unraced for 16 months following his Gulfstream Park Turf win in February 2017. He won his return in an optional-claiming allowance June 8 at Belmont. Prior to his run in the Breeders' Cup, he was second in the Arlington Million XXXVI Stakes (G1T) and eighth in the Shadwell Turf Mile.

Quarteto de Cordas made his North American debut in the Breeders' Cup after winning five of 16 starts in Brazil, including the June 10 Grande Premio Brasil (G1) and the Jan. 14 Grande Premio Jose Buarque de Macedo (G3). Brian Hernandez Jr. rides for trainer Ian Wilkes.