Saturday's Grade 2, $200,000 Ft. Lauderdale Stakes drew a full field of 12, plus one also-eligible, running nine furlongs on turf at Gulfstream Park. Many are accomplished stakes performers, such as recent Grade 3 Knickerbocker Stakes winner King Cause and recent Mohawk Stakes winner City Man, who has won three stakes from his last four races.
Last year's Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational winner Colonel Liam adds more depth to the field but is returning off a nine month layoff after a ninth place effort in the Group 1 Dubai Turf Stakes.
Shadow Sphinx finished second in the Artie Schiller Stakes in his most recent race and may be up to the task, as might Pao Alto (FR), who was another length and one-half back in third in that race. Winfromwithin, who won the Red Bank Stakes in September before a fifth place effort and a two and one-half month layoff, is likely to try to go for the lead, as is rail sitter Street Ready, also returning off a two month layoff. Carpenters Call won the Peach Street Stakes on all-weather this summer and has won on turf so could be a factor as well.
Tango Tango Tango showed he belongs with these horses when second in the Grade 2 Dinner Party Stakes this past May but hasn't won since earlier that same month, having run five times since then. Kentucky Ghost won the Cliff Hanger Stakes in May and a stakes quality classified allowance race in October, but was last of eight and beaten more than 20 lengths when last seen towards the end of November. Decorated Invader (the lone also-eligible), Marwad (GB), and Good Governance (GB) round out the field.
Top contenders:
City Man has won as the odds-on favorite in his last two races, but may not be favored in this year's Ft. Lauderdale Stakes because those wins came in races restricted to horses bred in New York. He won the Ashley T. Cole Stakes at the distance of the Ft. Lauderdale in September, with a very strong 111 
Equibase® Speed Figure then followed that up with a two and one-half length win in the Mohawk Stakes in October with a fine 108 figure. Even though those two wins came in state restricted races, City Man has proven capable of winning in open company, as he won the Danger's Hour Stakes in April and the Forbidden Apple Stakes in July, the latter in which he earned a career-best 112 figure. Best of all, jockey Joel Rosario rode him to two of those three wins and has now been in the saddle for six of the horse's eight career wins. With it likely there will be a contested early pace scenario whereby both Street Ready and Winfromwithin both want the early lead at any cost, City Man looks quite capable of earning another stakes win in this year's Ft. Lauderdale Stakes.
King Cause may be the one City Man has to run down late to win because this hard-knocking horse has the style to be third in the early stages. He won the Knickerbocker Stakes in October when leading from start to finish but on very slow fractions when no other horse wanted to be in front early but has won from off the pace as well. King Cause was so highly regarded after his Knickerbocker victory he was entered in the Breeders' Cup Mile, but did not run and has been waiting for a race like this one since then. King Cause also won two races prior to that when fourth in the early stages, earning a career-best 109 figure in the process. That's the race I'm expecting him to run under Jose Ortiz, who gets on after not having ridden the horse since January but having ridden him to a win at this nine furlong turf trip before that.
Colonel Liam is likely to go to post as the betting favorite in this race, because he's won seven of 11 races and banked $1.8 million. His biggest wins came in the 2020 and 2021 Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational over this turf course and at the distance of the Ft. Lauderdale. Colonel Liam returns to the races not having run in nine months, which could be an issue except for the fact he won the Tropical Park Derby at the end of December in 2020 following a four and one-half month layoff, and won this year's Pegasus following nearly eight months off. In this year's Pegasus, Colonel Liam earned a 113 figure, the same as he had earned in May of 2021 winning the Turf Classic Stakes, but then again the 112 figure City Man earned in the Forbidden Apple Stakes last July and the 109 figure King Cause earned winning this past summer both suggest Colonel Liam is not a standout if both those other horses run their best races.
Honorable mention goes to both Shadow Sphinx and Pao Alto (FR), particularly when considering who can run second to be part of the exacta, or who can run third to be part of the trifecta. Shadow Sphinx and Pao Alto (FR) finished second and third, respectively, in the Artie Schiller Stakes last month and earned 109 and 107 figures with those efforts. Shadow Sphinx has won 11 of 32 career starts and banked nearly $400,000 on grass in his career. He's trained by Mike Maker, who also saddles King Cause, so I feel we'd be remiss to ignore his chances. Pao Alto (FR) is in the hands of top trainer Graham Motion and has only run three times in the U.S. since importing from his native France. He led late in the Baltimore-Washington Turf Cup in his U.S. debut in September before settling for second, and he ran similarly well in the Artie Schiller, so could be good for another in-the-money finish in the Ft. Lauderdale.
The rest of the field, with their best Equibase Speed Figures, is Carpenters Call (113), Decorated Invader (103), Good Governance (GB) (106), Kentucky Ghost (115), Marwad (GB) (104), Street Ready (110), Tango Tango Tango (110) and Winfromwithin (115).
Win Contenders, in preference order:
City Man
King Cause
Colonel Liam
Ft. Lauderdale Stakes – Grade 2
Race 9 at Gulfstream Park
Saturday, December 31 – Post Time 4:10 PM E.T.
One Mile and One Eighth on Turf
Three Years Olds and Upward
Purse: $200,000
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