Cugino carries the favorite’s role into a final chance to compete in the 3yo turf division on Saturday in the $140,000 Tropical Park Derby on the turf at Gulfstream Park.

The Shug McGaughey trainee is listed at 9-to-5 odds in a full field of 12 set to go a mile and a sixteenth.

Eclipse champion Irad Ortiz Jr. will take the reins for the first time on Cugino, who finished a late-running second in the Grade 2 Hill Prince Stakes at Aqueduct last time out.

Cugino captured the Audubon Stakes at Churchill Downs this summer. On the turf at Gulfstream, he finished second by a neck in the Colonel Liam Stakes on March 2. His dam Adorable Miss was a double stakes winner on the turf at Gulfstream and also produced recent Graded stakes winner Battle of Normandy, who is possible to make his next start in the $1,050,000 Pegasus Cup Turf at Gulfstream on January 25.

Pictured at Gulfstream: