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Fort Larned, Fort Loudon clash in Gulfstream Park Handicap

Brian Hernandez was all smiles following Fort Larned's BC Classic victory (Breeders' Cup Ltd.) Five-year-old Kentucky homebred Fort Larned won the Breeders' Cup Classic last out at Santa Anita on November 3 and four-year-old Florida homebred Fort Loudon is in top form after a hard-fought half-length victory in the Grade 3 Gulfstream Park Sprint Championship Sprint on February 9. The two 'Forts' will clash for the first time and are the likely favorites in a field of six older horses drawn for Saturday's Grade 2, $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap going one mile. Regular rider Brian Hernandez Jr. will fly in from New Orleans for the mount on Fort Larned for trainer Ian Wilkes and jockey Jose Lezcano gets a return call on Fort Loudon for trainer Nick Zito. Fort Larned, who is the 3-5 morning line favorite, will shoulder topweight of 124 pounds in the 71st edition of the race, conceding six to Fort Loudon at 118 pounds and seven-to-12 pounds to his other rivals. Fort Larned will be making his first start in a one-turn race since breaking his maiden going a mile at Gulfstream on January 11, 2011, in the second start of his career following a fourth-place debut at Churchill Downs in November 2010. "It's a good stepping stone to bring my horse back," Wilkes said of the timing and distance of Saturday's race. "We've freshened him quite a bit since the Breeders' Cup. We've been in a nice work pattern. For me and my style, I thought it was the perfect race back for him."

The imposing bay son of E Dubai didn't make his stakes debut until winning the Challenger Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs in early March last year but would go on to take the Grade 3 Skip Away at Gulfstream on Florida Derby Day, March 31.

Fort Larned continued his success in stakes company when posting major scores in the Grade 3 Cornhusker Handicap at Prairie Meadows and Grade 1 Whitney Handicap at Saratoga before finishing third in his final tune-up for the Breeders' Cup behind Flat Out in the Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park in late September.

Fort Loudon comes into Saturday's race following a sharp victory in the seven-furlong Gulfstream Sprint Championship in his third start of the meet. The son of Awesome of Course was turned back in distance for that race from a well-beaten third in the Sunshine Millions Classic on January 19.

Fort Loudon was a two-year-old star at Calder in 2011, sweeping the Florida Stallion Stakes series of the In Reality, Affirmed and Dr. Fager divisions when trained by Stanley Gold. He was tested over a distance four times following the In Reality, finishing seventh in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, fourth in the Grade 3 Holy Bull, fifth in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and sixth in the Grade 1 Florida Derby.

Fort Loudon's first win at Gulfstream came in the Sprint Championship last out (Courtney Heeney/Adam Coglianese Photography) Gold turned Fort Loudon back to sprints at Calder last spring and summer and he won three straight stakes, including the Grade 3 Carry Back, before he was sent to Zito in New York. He ran a very big race to just miss by a nose when second in the Grade 1 King's Bishop at Saratoga in late August and later finished second in the Grade 3 Ack Ack Handicap at Churchill Downs in early November before shipping into Palm Meadows for the winter. "He's a good horse. He runs his race every time," Zito stated. "The one-turn mile should be perfect for him. We'll keep him in one one-turn races from now on. Fort Larned is a really good horse, but Fort Loudon is doing great and I think he'll be tough." Likely third-choice in Saturday's race will be Swagger Jack with jockey Luis Saez aboard for trainer Marty Wolfson. The five-year-old son of Smart Strike has hit his best stride at Gulfstream's current meet, winning a pair of one-mile allowance races in December and January and finishing a game second to Fort Loudon in the Gulfstream Sprint Championship. "I've been planning on running him in this race for some time," Wolfson explained. "I think the one post got him beat in his last race. It took him a while to get out and in the clear to make his run. He's doing really well and likes the track. I think the key to his success was taking the blinkers off (following a fourth-place finish in an optional claimer at Calder in November)."

Trainer Todd Pletcher had eight horses from his stable nominated for Saturday's race and has tabbed four-year-old Discreet Dancer to start Saturday with leading Gulfstream jockey Javier Castellano aboard as he makes just the fifth start of his sometimes brilliant career.

"I think this race will tell us a lot about where we are in terms of quality and the distance he wants to run," Pletcher said. "But he's always trained like a graded-stakes horse for us. Hopefully, bigger things will come, but I’m not 100 percent sure what distance it'll end up being."

A Florida homebred by Discreet Cat, the chestnut colt has made all four of his career starts at Gulfstream with three victories and a third. He won his debut in early December 2011 by 9 3/4 lengths in track record time for 5 1/2 furlongs. Discreet Dancer followed with a 5 1/2-length allowance score in early January last year and the third-place finish came when attempting two turns behind Union Rags in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth. Sidelined after that one, he didn't run again until February 6 when he posted a hard-fought neck victory in a six-furlong optional claimer.

"Watching him train, we felt he was one who would run well in his first start," Pletcher remarked. "He did and set a track record. He came back and won impressively the second time. I didn't know watching him train before he started that he'd end up being favored in the Fountain of Youth with a horse like Union Rags in there. He came out of that with an issue that required some time off, and here we are again."

Finishing out the Gulfstream Park 'Cap field are Grade 3 winner Gourmet Dinner, a five-year-old son of Trippi whose lone victory in eight starts last year came in the Majestic Light at Monmouth Park, and Decaf Again, a seven-year-old gelded son of Wised Up who has been beaten by double-digit lengths in nine of his last 10 races.

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