Canaletto, The Puma pointed to Tampa Bay Derby over Fountain of Youth
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Canaletto and The Puma, who were both under consideration for Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park, instead are being pointed to the Grade 3, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby on March 7.
Canaletto, trained by Chad Brown, was an impressive eight-length debut winner of a one-mile maiden race at Gulfstream Park on Jan. 25. Brown had mentioned the Tampa Bay Derby shortly after that race but then got intrigued by the Fountain of Youth when it was revealed that the 2-year-old champion, Ted Noffey, was sidelined. In the end, Brown stuck with his first instinct.
“I think the horse can benefit from just one more week,” Brown said. “I’m really happy with him, but I think [in] one more week I’ll have all of his weight fully on him and ready to go. And I wasn’t crazy about two races over Gulfstream for this particular horse.”
The Puma, a maiden, comes off a third-place finish in the Sam F. Davis, a race in which he encountered some traffic at the eighth pole and also lost a shoe during the running. His connections briefly thought about the Fountain of Youth, but also like the extra week to the Tampa Derby.
“It makes a little more sense, gives him more time,” said Ramiro Restrepo, racing manager for two of the entities that own The Puma, who is trained by Gustavo Delgado. “He handled the surface pretty well.”
Javier Castellano will ride The Puma in the Tampa Derby.
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