Gulfstream: Mohaymen ready to go in Fountain of Youth

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Mohaymen had his final work for next Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth when breezing an easy half-mile in 49.60 seconds Friday at Palm Meadows with regular exercise rider Miguel Jaime aboard.

“We don’t need 47s every week,” trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said, referring to Mohaymen’s bullet 47.75-second half-mile drill one week earlier. “He went great. He started out a little slow, going 13 and 3 the first eighth, and finished in 35 and 4, then kept going after it. All is well. We’re ready for next week.”

Mohaymen, ranked first in this week’s DRF Derby Watch, is perfect in four starts, winning the Remsen and Nashua stakes to close out his 2-year-old campaign before launching his 3-year-old season with a convincing triumph in the Grade 2 Holy Bull going 1 1/16 miles here Jan. 30.

Among the others pointing for the Fountain of Youth are the undefeated multiple graded stakes winner Awesome Banner; Awesome Speed, the winner of the Mucho Macho Man Stakes here on opening day; the unbeaten Zulu; the impressive local allowance winner Cherry Wine; and Fellowship, who finished a distant third behind Mohaymen in the Holy Bull.

◗ The main track was lightning-fast for training Friday at Gulfstream Park, with a number of extremely quick works on the tab, including Grande Shores’s 58.89-second clocking for five furlongs shortly after the first renovation break. Grande Shores is being pointed for the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Handicap on March 5, according to trainer Stanley Gold.