Klaravich Stables’ Summer Doldrums may have stamped himself as the horse to beat in Saturday’s 55th running of the Grade 3, $200,000 Gotham, but a pair of horses from Florida appear ready to give a strong test to the Whirlaway winner.

Cowtown Cat and Longley ship from the Sunshine State this week to make their first starts around two turns in the mile-and-a-sixteenth Gotham, New York’s first graded stakes race on the three-year-old calendar. Hopefully, they will have their clocks set right; Aqueduct returns to a 1 p.m. Eastern first-race post time today.

Owned by WinStar Farm and Gulf Coast Farms, Cowtown Cat is one of six horses nominated to the race by trainer Todd Pletcher, who has never won a Gotham.

In his second start last year, Cowtown Cat showed he has a bright future when he drew off to a smart 4 ½-length maiden win in early September at Belmont. The son of Distorted Humor made one more start last year, finishing a distant sixth in the Grade 3 Nashua after stumbling badly at the start.

Cowtown Cat made his three-year-old debut in a 6 ½-furlong allowance race at Gulfstream, rallying to win in handy fashion. Pletcher wheeled him back 20 days later in the Grade 2 Swale where the colt had to settle for a third-place finish as the 3-2 favorite, seven lengths behind winner Adore the Gold.

“We felt after the last race that he was a little one-paced,” Pletcher said from Gulfstream last Saturday, where he saddled five winners, including Fountain of Youth victor Scat Daddy. “He was rushed a bit down the backside and never got to settle. After the race, (jockey John Velazquez) came back and said, ‘it looks like he wants to stretch out.’”

Cowtown Cat worked Saturday morning at Palm Beach Downs and is scheduled to ship to New York on Tuesday.

Donald Adam’s Longley has less experience than Cowtown Cat with only two races under his belt. The Seeking the Gold colt won his only start at 2, impressively scoring in an off-the-turf maiden special weight at Saratoga in August.

“He had some shin problems, so we backed off him and sent him to Ocala,” trainer Graham Motion answered when asked why the colt only made one start last year. “We picked him up when we came down to Florida and it looked like the time off did him good. I think he’s matured nicely.”

Longley’s only start this year was on February 3rd at Gulfstream when he vied for the early lead and weakened in the stretch of an entry-level allowance. Despite Longley getting a little tired late in the seven-furlong race, Motion is confident the colt will be stronger around two turns.

“He surprised me in that race because I didn’t expect him to be that sharp,” Motion said.

Part of the reason why Longley will be in the Gotham is because Motion loves the distance for him at this point in time.

“I think he’s a two-turn horse and the choices at Gulfstream are to run a one-turn mile, or if you want to go two turns, a mile and an eighth,” Motion said. “I think he needs the progression of a mile-and-a-sixteenth race.”

Motion said Longley was scheduled to work Monday morning at Palm Meadows and was hoping jockey Eibar Coa, who goes to Florida on most NYRA dark days to visit his son and mother, would be able to work the colt. Coa has the mount on Longley in the Gotham.

Also coming up from Florida for the Gotham is Believeinmenow, a Tiznow gelding who last ran in New York when fifth behind Pink Viper in the January 6th Count Fleet. Following that effort, trainer H. James Bond sent Believeinmenow to Palm Meadows, where he breezed four times in February.

In addition to Summer Doldrums, Cowtown Cat, Longley and Believeinmenow, the Gotham is shaping up to be a very competitive race. Others pointing to the Grade 3 event are recent Miracle Wood winner Crafty Bear, How Sweet He Is, Mint Slewlep, Sir Whimsey and Wafi City. Wollaston Bay, who won the Fred “Cappy” Capossela last month, is listed as a possible starter by NYRA Stakes Coordinator Andrew Byrnes.

The Gotham will be one of two graded stakes on Saturday’s card, along with the 114th running of the Grade 3, $100,000 Toboggan at six furlongs.

The Toboggan is one of the oldest races on the NYRA calendar, and gets its name from the old, downhill course at Morris Park in 1896, known as the “Toboggan Slide.”

Probable starters for the Toboggan are Attila’s Storm, the 2005 Fall Highweight winner; Cavallo Pazzo, who has won four of his last five starts; Introspect, narrow winner of the Hollie Hughes Handicap last month; recent winner Pavo and Wild Jam.