Gulfstream Park: Cairo Prince likely to go in Fountain of Youth Stakes

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said he was doing “great” Sunday morning, and why shouldn’t he have been, in light of Cairo Prince’s outstanding performance Saturday in the Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes?

Cairo Prince parlayed a perfect trip under jockey Luis Saez into a convincing 5 3/4-length victory over Conquest Titan in the 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull, earning a 95 Beyer Speed Figure, the highest of his four-race career.

“He’s happy this morning, so I’m happy,” McLaughlin said Sunday. “He came out of the race bright-eyed and feeling great.”

McLaughlin said the Fountain of Youth Stakes on Feb. 22 would be the “obvious” choice for Cairo Prince’s next start but wouldn’t commit to the Grade 2 fixture just yet.

“We’ll get together, see what the figures and the sheets are saying, and talk about what the best program will be for him going forward,” McLaughlin said. “If he continues to do this well down here, the Fountain of Youth is the logical spot. The Gotham is a week later, which would give us five weeks instead of four, but I don’t really like the inner course up there [at Aqueduct] with a horse from off the pace. So, I doubt we’ll do that, although it would bring the Wood Memorial into play. The only thing I will say is that he won’t run anywhere else but Gulfstream or New York.”

McLaughlin also was quick to praise the job Saez did in handling Cairo Prince in the Holy Bull.

“Luis rode him perfectly,” McLaughlin said. “In fact, that’s one thing I worry about: Everything did go very, very well for him in this race.”

[ROAD TO THE KENTUCKY DERBY: Prep races, point standings, replays]

Mark Casse also was pleased with the effort he got from Conquest Titan in the Holy Bull.

“I wanted him to stay a little closer to the pace, but he got pinched back a little on the first turn, which maybe was a blessing in disguise,” Casse said. “But overall, I thought he ran well. It’s tough to come from way off the pace at Gulfstream, especially breaking from an outside post like he did. I just wanted him to show that he belonged with that group, and I think he proved that with his performance.”

Casse said he hasn’t even begun to think about what might be next for Conquest Titan, a son of Birdstone who was a stakes winner on Polytrack at age 2.

“We’ll see how he trains coming out of this race, but we have so many options,” Casse said. “Part of me would love for him to stay at Gulfstream and run in the Fountain of Youth. You always like to stay at home if you can, but I just don’t know if this track suits him, and at some point, you have to start thinking about earning Derby points.”

Intense Holiday, who finished third after breaking from the extreme outside in the 11-horse Holy Bull field, also came out of the race well, according to trainer Todd Pletcher, who was happy with his horse’s effort, even in defeat.

“I thought he ran very well,” Pletcher said. “We were able to negotiate a pretty good trip from the 11 post. I thought he put in a big middle move but flattened out just a little bit the last part. I was hoping he could hang on for second, but he got nosed out for that. Cairo Prince was just the best horse yesterday.”

[Clocker Reports: Get Mike Welsch’s clocker reports from Gulfstream Park and Palm Meadows]

Pletcher said he’ll consider all his options before deciding where Intense Holiday will start next.

“I think everything is in play,” Pletcher said. “We’ll see how things sort out over the next few weeks. The Fountain of Youth is coming up tough, so we might consider heading to Louisiana, Oaklawn, or one of the other spots. Good thing about now is there are a ton of options.”

Top Billing was nearly as impressive as Cairo Prince in winning a first-level allowance race earlier Saturday. Top Billing covered 1 1/16 miles 0.50 seconds slower than the Holy Bull and received a 90 Beyer.

“I’m not sure who was behind him, but for him to get back and make a run like that, I was very impressed with him,” said trainer Shug McGaughey, adding that he’d confer with owner William S. Farish before deciding where to run Top Billing next.

McGaughey also said he’d likely return Mr Speaker to turf following his seventh-place finish in the Holy Bull.

“I was a little surprised that he was up that close, but the winner was sitting right on his tail,” McGaughey said. “I think at this point, he’s going to be better on the grass.”

Trainer Chad Brown said Coup de Grace is off the Derby trail after suffering his first defeat when finishing a tiring 10th in the Holy Bull.

“He came back okay,” Brown said. “We’ll just send him back to the track in a couple of days and restart slow with him. He got a disappointing trip. He didn’t break well, then rushed up to the lead and was fighting the bit quite a bit. He wasn’t a cooperative horse. The unfortunate thing is we didn’t learn much about the horse around two turns because at the three-eighths pole, he was done.

“But he looks good, he’s a nice horse, he’s got a lot of talent. We’re still trying to figure him out, what he wants to do. More than likely, we’ll freshen him up a bit – I don’t know how long – and cut him back to one turn and more or less start all over somewhere.”