OZONE PARK, N.Y. – The connections of Firenze Fire chose to take the New York road to the Kentucky Derby because they thought it would be the easiest path. As horsemen based here have learned the past two weeks, nothing comes easy in New York these days. That included Saturday’s $150,000 Jerome Stakes in which Firenze Fire had to work harder than the odds-board suggested he should under Manny Franco to run down Seven Trumpets and win the race by a half-length over an extremely muddy Aqueduct main track. Seven Trumpets, who set pedestrian fractions on the lead under Paco Lopez, finished second by 5 1/4 lengths over Coltandmississippi. It was another half-length back to Regalian. Factor This and Glennwood completed the order of finish. Old Time Revival and Smooth B, both based at Mid-Atlantic tracks, scratched. For Firenze Fire, the Jerome was his fourth victory from six career starts. He previously won the Grade 1 Champagne at Belmont in October and the Grade 3 Sanford at Saratoga in July. The victory in the Jerome earned him 10 qualifying points to the Kentucky Derby and combined with the 10 he earned in the Champagne, Firenze Fire now has 20 points. “My goal is to get to the Derby, that’s a dream,” said Ron Lombardi, the owner of Firenze Fire. “I’ve been in the business for nine years and had a couple of good horses, but this is really something special.” Firenze Fire finished seventh in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile after the colt got a temperature upon arriving in California from New York. Following the Breeders’ Cup, Lombardi, who races under Mr Amore Stables, and trainer Jason Servis made the decision to keep Firenze Fire in New York for the winter. Aqueduct has four stakes offering qualifying points to the Kentucky Derby. The Jerome was originally scheduled for Jan. 1. But, extreme winter weather caused that day’s card – all or parts of nine consecutive cards actually – to be canceled, delaying this race until Saturday. The Aqueduct main track was muddy, demanding, and appeared to favor forwardly-placed horses throughout the day. Firenze Fire prefers to rally from well off the pace and Franco, riding the horse for the first time, didn’t want to change his style. Despite breaking on top, Franco took Firenze Fire back and he was last, but only 3 1/2 lengths off the pace, after Seven Trumpets ran an opening half-mile in 50.81 seconds. At the three-eighths pole, Franco split horses with Firenze Fire then tipped him four wide approaching the quarter pole. Seven Trumpets, who ran six furlongs in 1:16.72, came out a path or two in upper stretch and then wandered to the rail after being smacked right-handed by Paco Lopez. Firenze Fire, who also drifted out, was straightened out by Franco above the eighth pole and he came with a determined run to get up. Firenze Fire, a Florida-bred son of Poseidon’s Warrior, covered the mile in 1:42.88 and returned $2.90 as the 2-5 favorite. Seven Trumpets, who was making his stakes debut, “didn’t like the track” according to Lopez. He earned 4 points toward the Derby while, Coltandmississippi and Regalian earned 2 and 1, respectively. Franco said that Firenze Fire’s regular rider, Irad Ortiz Jr. “always takes him back and makes one run with him and that’s what I tried to do today even though the track was like that. Just ride him like he did and he responded.” Lombardi, who said he just wanted to get out of Saturday with a win, said “to see him dig in and come back like that was awesome.” The next race on this circuit that offers Kentucky Derby qualifying points is the Grade 3 Withers Stakes on Feb. 3. But Lombardi said he would likely wait for the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes on March 10 followed by the Grade 2 Wood Memorial on April 10. If Firenze Fire or any Grade 1 winner competes in the Wood Memorial, the purse would be raised to $1 million from $750,000. “We’re staying up here,” Lombardi said. “I’m not going south with him. If he could make it through the past two weeks I think we’re good going forward.”