HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The Gulfstream Park Championship meet is long over, although several northern-based horsemen continue to make their presence felt on the local front. The group includes Todd Pletcher, whose Grade 3 winner Antiquarian will make his much anticipated return from an extended layoff as the solid choice in the last of three optional-claiming/allowance races on Saturday’s card. The main event will be decided at seven furlongs over the main track for a $57,000 purse.
Antiquarian has not started since finishing fifth, beaten 7 1/2 lengths by Dornoch, in the 2024 Belmont Stakes. The outing was the fifth and last of Antiquarian’s successful but abbreviated 3-year-old campaign, which was highlighted by a three-quarter-length victory in the Grade 3 Peter Pan.
“He just had a few minor issues and it felt like he needed a break,” Pletcher said when asked about Antiquarian’s lengthy hiatus since the Belmont. “We put him away for the fall and it’s taken a while to get him back on course, but he’s doing very well at the moment.”
Antiquarian has had six recorded works over the past two months, including a pair of bullet five-eighths prepping for his return at Pletcher’s winter home of Palm Beach Downs.
“I thought his Peter Pan was very good and he ran a respectable race in the Belmont,” Pletcher noted. “I’ve always felt like he’d improve with time, and he seems to be training as well as ever – even better. The biggest concern is seven furlongs, which is not his specialty, I don’t believe. But maybe his class can overcome that.”
Pletcher is already loaded in the older dirt male division this year with Locked, Fierceness, and Mindframe in the barn.
Antiquarian will face seven rivals, including stablemates Shaq Diesel and Pure Class from the barn of trainer David Fawkes. Shaq Diesel gets some class relief after finishing an even-running fifth behind the odds-on Mindframe in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile, while Pure Class exits a game neck victory when dropping in for a $50,000 claiming tag in his most recent start.
The remainder of the lineup includes Cadet Crops, Flying Liam, Khozeiress, Secret Chat, and the speedy Loco Abarrio.
The two earlier co-features will be decided on the turf, weather permitting, with the seventh race going five furlongs and the ninth at one mile for fillies and mares.
The first of those two races could prove a rematch of a similarly conditioned turf dash March 23 won by Red River Rebel. He will face the third-, fourth- and fifth-place finishers – Cruzin Man, Great Lilo, and Chess Master – out of that race on Saturday. There’s a case to be made for all three to avenge those setbacks.
Cruzin Man was beaten less than two lengths as the 9-5 favorite when setting a hotly contested pace in his most recent start after missing by a neck with the same kind four weeks earlier. Great Lilo failed to show his best speed last time but finished and galloped out best of all after swinging wide into the stretch. Chess Master also was hung wide following a bit of a slow start from his outside post but is drawn on the rail this time around.
Like Pletcher, trainer Christophe Clement has left a number of horses behind in south Florida to compete during the current Royal Palm meet before shipping north for the season. These include Silver Skillet, who will likely be favored when facing allowance competition for the first time in a full year in the ninth race. The New York-bred Silver Skillet was a two-time statebred stakes winner in 2024. The key question is her fitness level returning from a four-month layoff while making her debut over the local turf course.
$3 million maiden back at it
Long before Antiquarian launches his 2025 season, Pletcher will send out owner Mike Repole and West Point Thoroughbreds’s $3 million yearling purchase Vibe for his second career start going one mile in the afternoon’s sixth race. Vibe, a son of Into Mischief, finished a distant and very disappointing fourth while launching his career as the even-money favorite going six furlongs against maiden special weight opposition here March 15. Vibe will race with blinkers for the first time Saturday.
“He just got run off his feet in his first start. He just wasn’t quick enough, so hopefully the added distance and addition of blinkers lead to an improved performance,” Pletcher said. “He wore blinkers in his last work and it seemed to make a big difference.”
– additional reporting by David Grening
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.