HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – The $165,000 Mr. Prospector has never really been considered a prep for the marquee event of the Gulfstream Park Championship meet, the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational. But it will be this year when 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner White Abarrio uses the seven-furlong Mr. Prospector as a final stepping-stone to the 1 1/8-mile Pegasus World Cup four weeks later. The Grade 3 Mr. Prospector highlights an outstanding 11-race program here Saturday that also includes the $115,000 Abundantia for older fillies and mares going five furlongs on the turf. First post is 12:20 p.m. Despite the fact trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. clearly announced his intention of using the Mr. Prospector rather than the 1 1/16-mile Harlan’s Holiday for White Abarrio’s final prep for the Pegasus World Cup, the notion of facing the 2023 Whitney and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner did not seem to deter anyone from entering. White Abarrio will face 11 rivals in his 2024 finale, a field that also features Mufasa, impressive winner of the Grade 3 Vosburgh this fall at Aqueduct, and the well-traveled multiple Grade 3 winner Super Chow. But no matter the competition, White Abarrio will be the center of attention. White Abarrio made his first dozen career starts with Joseph, the highlight of which was his victory in the 2022 Florida Derby. He rejoined Joseph’s barn once again this summer following a disappointing fifth-place finish for former trainer Rick Dutrow in the Met Mile and passed his first test on the comeback trail with flying colors when overwhelming four overmatched allowance rivals by 10 1/4 lengths going seven furlongs on Nov. 22. “Frankly I didn’t know what to expect before his last start and thankfully he ran well and has come out of the race training better and better every week,” said Joseph. “Originally we were going to run him in the Harlan’s Holiday, but after talking it over with the owners we decided to run him back in a second one-turn race like he did before his big effort in the Whitney. Hoping it will help him have the same big kick he had that day when he stretches back around two turns again in the Pegasus.” White Abarrio will be ridden once again by Irad Ortiz Jr. and will receive a four-pound weight concession under the allowance conditions of the Mr. Prospector from the 126-pound highweight Mufasa, who followed a well-graded and one-sided allowance win at seven furlongs this summer at Colonial Downs with his very impressive 4 1/4-length triumph going the same distance over a sloppy track six weeks later in the Vosburgh. That performance earned Mufasa a trip to the Breeders’ Cup, where he was never a serious factor, finishing 12 3/4 lengths behind Full Serrano in the Dirt Mile. Super Chow returns to his home base for the first time since finishing second as an odds-on favorite under allowance conditions a year ago. The speedy 4-year-old has won three of his seven starts on the road in 2024, all Grade 3 victories, in the Toboggan and Tom Fool Handicap at Aqueduct and the Maryland Sprint at Pimlico. He has failed to hit the board in each of his last three outings for trainer Jorge Delgado. “It seems he saves his best for graded stakes,” said Delgado. “I know White Abarrio is in the race. But he has a nice record at Gulfstream Park and put in a very good work here last Saturday, so I’m going to embrace what we have and not worry about who the competition might be.” Abundantia Joseph will saddle one of the key contenders, the lightly raced Mrs. Gambolini, in the Abundantia which, like the Mr Prospector, attracted a full field of 12. The well-matched lineup also includes four-time stakes winner Twirling Queen, who is poorly drawn on the extreme outside, as well as a pair of speedy fillies from the barn of trainer Wesley Ward, Shootoutthelights and Imaboutago. Mrs. Gambolini has sandwiched a pair of easy victories around a fourth-place finish as the tepid favorite under entry-level allowance conditions this summer at Kentucky Downs. “Her effort in Kentucky was a little disappointing, but she had to make a long ship just two days before the race and I like the fact she came back here and won impressively in her next start,” Joseph said of Mrs. Gambolini, who drew the rail for the Abundantia. “We’re obviously skipping a couple of conditions to run her in this spot, but that’s how much we think of her. She’s a very good filly and if she breaks well, I think she can make the lead.” Twirling Queen earned her fourth stakes victory in her last five starts when holding on for a neck decision over Just Nails in the Senator Ken Maddy Stakes over the Del Mar turf on Nov. 1. Barring any scratches, she will have to be at her very best again to overcome her outside draw on Saturday with post 12 at this distance having yielded only 18 winners from 267 starters over the local turf course dating back to 2007.