Gulfstream Park: Fort Larned doing well

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Ian Wilkes reported that Fort Larned continues to do well and seems to have suffered no ill effects after stumbling badly and unseating jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. moments after the break of the Gulfstream Park Handicap on March 9. Fort Larned worked for the first time since the incident last Thursday, going an easy half-mile in 50 seconds and change at Palm Meadows.

“We let him go just an easy half-mile,” said Wilkes. “After something like that you just have to keep watching them. You’re always wondering if there was something I’m missing. Mentally he seems very happy. When he worked, he relaxed then picked it up when the rider asked. I couldn’t have asked for a better work coming back.”

Wilkes said now that he has had time to think about the mishap at the start of the Gulfstream Park Handicap, he believes it was just a matter of Fort Larned being “super-ready” and “overeager” for his first race since winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic three months earlier.

“He’s never done anything like that before, and I’m really not concerned that it will happen again,” said Wilkes.

Fort Larned is scheduled to make his next start in the Oaklawn Handicap on April 13.