The $215,000, Grade 2 Ft. Lauderdale Stakes Saturday at Gulfstream Park drew a field of nine turf runners, six of them stakes winners on grass. Leading the group in terms of career earnings is Grand Sonata with a shade over $2 million, who won the Grade 2 FanDuel TV Kentucky Turf Cup Stakes this past summer and who drops in class after an 11^th-place finish in the Grade 1 Longines Breeders’ Cup Turf last month.

Major Dude will go over the one million mark in earnings if he wins, having banked $956,257 to date while winning six of 17 races. He won his most recent race in October. Emmanuel has won five of 15 career turf races including the Grade 3 Canadian Turf Stakes in March over Gulfstream’s course but is winless in six races since then. Win for the Money won the Grade 1 Rogers Woodbine Mile Stakes one race before last to bring his earnings to $814,997 and fits nicely after a 10^th-place finish last month in the Grade 1 FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile Presented by PDJF. Cash Equity closed fast for second in the Grade 3 Mint Millions Stakes in September but hasn’t threatened in two races since then. Saratoga Flash won his most recent race two months ago and was competitive in the Appleton Stakes on the Gulfstream Park turf course in March when beaten by a head on the wire. Lorenz won the Remington Green Stakes when last seen at the end of September and is racing in a graded stakes race for the first time. Fort Washington won the Grade 3 Monmouth Stakes at the Ft. Lauderdale’s 1 1/8-mile distance on turf in June and although he’s winless in four races since, all of them stakes races, he has been fairly competitive. Siege of Boston, who hasn’t won a race since June 2023, finished fourth in the Monmouth Stakes and then second and third in a pair of stakes races in Kentucky, but he followed that by finishing a poor fifth in the Grade 3 Knickerbocker Stakes when last seen in October.

Top contenders:

Win for the Money crossed the finish line in first both times he raced on the turf course at Gulfstream Park but he was disqualified and placed second in the first of those two efforts, back in April 2023. He earned a graded stakes-quality 112 Equibase Speed Figure in that effort, which he came close to repeating when winning the Woodbine Mile in September. Although the Woodbine Mile and the Breeders’ Cup Mile which he ran in last month both carried a Grade 1 ranking, the latter was much tougher, and so it was no surprise Win for the Money ended up last of 10 in that race. Win for the Money’s only other race on the Gulfstream Park turf course was the Mr. Steele Stakes this past May, in which he dominated by nearly seven lengths with a 108 Equibase figure. Considering the strength of his effort in his race before last as well as his win on this course back in May, Win for the Money figures to rebound to top form which should be good enough to win in this situation.

Grand Sonata has only won once in six races this year while finishing second in two other races. He too was overmatched in a Grade 1 race last month, the Breeders’ Cup Turf, finishing 11^th of 13. However, right before that Grand Sonata won the Kentucky Turf Cup with a very strong 114 figure at odds of 15.39-1. That effort was no fluke, as Grand Sonata had earned the same 114 figure two races prior to that when second, beaten a nose, in the United Nations Stakes. Similar to Win for the Money, Grand Sonata has proven to have an affinity for the Gulfstream Park turf course, with two wins in three starts. Perhaps more importantly, in last year’s Fort Lauderdale Stakes, Grand Sonata rallied furiously in the late stages to end up in a four-horse blanket finish, missing the win by three-quarters of a length and earning a 106 figure that he has bettered in three of six races since. It is very interesting to note that even though Grand Sonata has a record of 5-6-2 in 24 career starts, jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who rides Saturday, has been aboard for all five wins from 12 mounts overall in those 24 races. Like Win for the Money, Grand Sonata is eligible to return to the form he displayed when winning the Kentucky Turf Cup, and as such is another contender with a high probability to win the Ft. Lauderdale.

Major Dude has won five of 13 career races on turf, including the Penn Mile Stakes in the spring of 2023 as a 3-year-old. He went winless in his three subsequent races last year but returned stronger as a 4-year-old after taking nine months off. In his second start of 2024, Major Dude won a classified allowance race at Saratoga and at the distance of the Fort Lauderdale with a 106 Equibase Figure, and then two races later earned a career-best 113 figure with a strong victory in a stakes-quality allowance race at Keeneland. He recently put in a fine half-mile workout at Palm Beach Downs which was the best of 24 on the day at the distance, and he will reunite with Irad Ortiz Jr. Saturday. The reigning Eclipse Award winner has been aboard for three of this horse’s six career wins, and Major Dude rounds out a strong trio that appears to have a significant edge over the rest of the field.

The rest of the field (with best  Equibase Speed Figure): Cash Equity (113), Emmanuel (115), Fort Washington (115), Lorenz (104), Saratoga Flash (113) and Siege of Boston (114).

Win Contenders, in preference order:

Win for the Money

Grand Sonata

Major Dude