Instilled Regard breaks through in Fort Lauderdale Stakes
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Instilled Regard became a Grade 2 winner for the first time when rallying from between horses to register a hard-fought half-length decision over Admission Office in Saturday’s hotly contested renewal of the $200,000 Fort Lauderdale at Gulfstream Park. The Fort Lauderdale was the richest of five stakes, four of them graded, on the card.
Instilled Regard entered the 1 1/8-mile Fort Lauderdale winless since capturing the Grade 3 Lecomte over the main track at Fair Grounds in January 2018. The Fort Lauderdale was just his fourth start on turf, a surface over which he finished third in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby in his 3-year-old finale. His best career performance came in the 2018 Kentucky Derby, a fourth-place finish just 4 1/4 lengths behind Justify.
With Irad Ortiz Jr. aboard, Instilled Regard raced within easy striking distance of the pacesetting Cross Border while saving ground for six furlongs. He came through a narrow opening between Up the Ante and Marzo at the top of the stretch and surged late to prove narrowly best in the final strides.
Admission Office trailed for a mile, swung to the extreme outside for the stretch run, finished strongest of all, and just missed. He was a neck better than 2-1 favorite Channel Cat, who checked home third, with Flavius tiring late to be fourth after rallying to a short advantage nearing midstretch.
Instilled Regard is a 4-year-old son of Arch. Trained by Chad Brown for OXO Equine LLC, Instilled Regarded completed the distance on a firm course in 1:47.18 and paid $8.60.
“This is the same horse that showed up for me [at 85-1] on Kentucky Derby day a year ago,” OXO Equine’s Larry Best said. “We ended up beating a lot of great horses that day. This is a real horse. He needed time to mature a little bit. We knew he’d be better as a 3- and 4-year-old. He’s fresh off the layoff, and this is the kind of race we need to think about to go on to bigger things.”
The Fort Lauderdale is a prep for the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational on Jan. 25.