Fellowship to go in Florida Derby

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Add Fellowship’s name to the shortlist of likely starters in the Florida Derby.

Trainer Stanley Gold said Monday that the steadily improving Fellowship came out of his third-place finish in the Fountain of Youth Stakes on Saturday in good order, and that if all continues to go well, he will take on Mohaymen for a third time April 2 in the $1 million Florida Derby.

“I thought he ran well,” said Gold, who trains Fellowship for owner and breeder Fred Brei’s Jacks or Better Farm. “It was what we expected. I knew he’d run late.”

Fellowship has now finished third to Mohaymen in the Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth, beaten six lengths and 6 1/4 lengths while posting career-best Beyer Speed Figures of 85 in both races. The 12 qualifying points he’s earned in the Holy Bull and Fountain of Youth has him tied for 13th place on the points list to determine the 20 starters for the Kentucky Derby.

“Everybody thinks Mohaymen is the best 3-year-old in the country, and we’ve been beaten six lengths twice by him,” said Gold. “He’ll run in the Florida Derby. With Mohaymen and Nyquist in there, it will probably be a small field, which doesn’t help him. But the further he goes, the better. Distance doesn’t seem to be any problem. He just runs honest and keeps plugging away. He doesn’t mind the crowd, and he doesn’t mind dirt in his face. I would guess if he gets in a position where he can get into the [Kentucky] Derby, Jacks or Better will go. There are a lot of races still coming where people can get points to get ahead of him, but he still has chances to get more points himself.”

The Gold-trained Awesome Banner suffered his first defeat in four starts when finishing a distant fifth under Jose Caraballo in the Fountain of Youth. Gold said that he also came out of the race none the worse for wear, although his immediate future is a bit more cloudy than Fellowship’s.

“I was a little disappointed with him,” said Gold. “The jock rushed him to the lead, and he shouldn’t have. He should have just let his speed take him to the front, and we’d have been fine. I wasn’t expecting that, and I think it just burnt him out. I didn’t get any answers to whether he’ll go to two turns or not, so I don’t know what I’m going to do. Jacks or Better hasn’t decided yet if they want to try him two turns again or if they’ll let me find a sprint race next.”

Awesome Banner wasn’t the only major contender not to show up in the Fountain of Youth. Awesome Speed finished a nonthreatening fourth, 13 lengths behind the winner, after getting slammed hard a few strides out of the gate.

“He seems fine now, but we’ll have to wait a few days to really know for sure,” said trainer Alan Goldberg. “I think getting hit like that really took him out of his game. I was kind of excited to run. He was training great – two months, and he hadn’t missed a beat – and he had nothing the whole race. A young horse gets slammed like that, it affects them. He never got comfortable. Right now, I don’t know what Plan B is.”