HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Todd Pletcher has won the Grade 1 Florida Derby a record six times, including five of the last nine renewals. But none of those promising youngsters, even eventual Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming in 2017, came into the race with expectations for victory as high as Forte, who will go postward an overwhelming favorite despite facing 11 rivals and breaking from a disadvantageous outside post. The $1 million Florida Derby, which offers 200 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to be awarded on a 100-40-30-20-10 basis to the top five finishers, will be run as the final event on a 14-race program Saturday at Gulfstream Park that includes nine other stakes, including the Grade 2, $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks for 3-year-old fillies. First post is 11:30 a.m. Pletcher’s six Florida Derby winners – Scat Daddy (2007), Constitution (2014), Materiality (2015), Always Dreaming, Audible (2018), and Known Agenda (2021) – ranged in price from 8-5 on Audible to 5-1 for Known Agenda. Forte is likely to go postward in the vicinity of 3-5, if not lower. He enters the race as the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and reigning 2-year-old champion, and solidified his role as the Kentucky Derby favorite by launching his 3-year-old campaign with a convincing 4 1/2-length victory in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth here four weeks earlier. Pletcher will be the first to admit things couldn’t have gone any smoother for Forte since he returned to training at Palm Beach Downs shortly after his 1 1/2-length triumph in the Juvenile. Forte, who is owned in partnership by Repole Stable and St Elias Stable, will have regular rider Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard again on Saturday. “Knock on wood, everything has gone perfectly up to this point, as smoothly as we could have possibly hoped for,” Pletcher said. “I’m super excited about the way he ran in the Fountain of Youth and the way he’s coming into this race.” :: Get Gulfstream Park Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day. About the only fly in the ointment thus far for Pletcher came at Saturday’s post-position draw, which put Forte in post 11 with a short run to the first turn in races decided at a mile and one-eighth. The post has yielded just two winners from 49 starters at the distance dating to 2008, but none had a résumé even remotely as imposing as that of Forte. “Irad has been able to work out perfect trips for him in the Breeders’ Futurity, Breeders’ Cup, and Fountain of Youth, and hopefully he’ll be able to do it again Saturday,” said Pletcher. Three of the four 3-year-olds who figure to provide Forte with his stiffest competition are also poorly drawn with Cyclone Mischief, Fort Bragg, and Dubuynell beginning from posts 9, 10, and 12, respectively. Mage fared best of the leading contenders, and will break from post 4. Cyclone Mischief has sandwiched a one-sided and well-graded allowance win and a third-place finish in the Fountain of Youth around a disappointing and distant seventh-place finish as the 6-5 favorite in the Grade 3 Holy Bull here this winter. Cyclone Mischief set the pace to midstretch in the Fountain of Youth before proving no match for Forte while racing in what was arguably the deeper part of the track that day along the rail. “I think the problem in the Holy Bull came from reaching and grabbing him early because he’d run so well from off the pace in his allowance win,” trainer Dale Romans said. “He resented it and had a rough trip all around. We let him run last time and he really redeemed himself. Obviously Forte ran a super race that day and we’ve got to hope he’ll regress a little bit and we have to step forward.” Fort Bragg, to be ridden for the first time by Joel Rosario, was rerouted here by trainer Tim Yakteen from a scheduled start last week in the Sunland Park Derby while trying to earn enough points to qualify for the Kentucky Derby. Fort Bragg was transferred to Yakteen’s barn from trainer Bob Baffert just prior to his fifth-place finish in the Grade 2 San Felipe at Santa Anita on March 4. “I don’t think he got the optimum trip in the San Felipe, he wasn’t able to position himself where we felt he was most comfortable, closer to the pace,” said Yakteen. “He didn’t get the best of posts for this race. We’ll just leave it in Joel’s hands to work out a good trip.” :: Get ready for Gulfstream Park racing with DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports. Like Yakteen, trainer Danny Gargan had been expecting a smaller field and greater opportunity to earn enough qualifying points to get Dubyuhnell into the Derby. Dubyuhnell earned 10 points for his well-graded victory last fall over a sloppy track at Aqueduct in the Grade 2 Remsen. He finished a distant eighth after disastrous trip as the tepid favorite making his 3-year-old bow in the Grade 2 Sam F. Davis at Tampa Bay Downs on Feb. 11. Mage is short on experience but long on talent, having finished a slow-starting, wide-running fourth in the Fountain of Youth off just one previous start, an impressive seven-furlong maiden win five weeks earlier. He is trained by Gustavo Delgado, who sent out Majesto to finish second at odds of 21-1 behind Nyquist in the 2016 Florida Derby and Bodexpress to be second behind Maximum Security as a 71-1 outsider in this race three years later. Trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. will saddle one-third of the Florida Derby lineup in West Coast Cowboy, Mr. Peeks, Nautical Star, and Mr. Ripple. They are all considered outsiders in a field that also includes longshots Jungfrau, Shaq Diesel, and Il Miracolo. “West Coast Cowboy surprised us how well he ran finishing third in the Holy Bull,” Joseph said. “Mr. Peeks has a lot of questions to answer. The plan is to be on the lead with him. “We purchased Nautical Star with the Florida Derby in mind. And I think finally being able to come back quickly with Mr. Ripple should help him move forward off his last start.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.