I was looking for a bit more out of the Fair Grounds 3-year-old stakes last Saturday. Gun Runner won the Risen Star with a 90 Beyer Speed Figure, the kind of February number that does not typically portend a Kentucky Derby run. But that race was really fast compared with the Rachel Alexandra for 3-year-old fillies. Venus Valentine won the Rachel Alexandra with a 77, a number more associated with an allowance win than a Grade 2 stakes. The Rachel Alexandra disappointment was Stageplay, who arrived with “omni figs” – each of her Beyers was better than any Beyer from any other filly in the field – and hit the wall in the stretch. On to Gulfstream Park for the Fountain of Youth, Davona Dale, and a red-hot Gulfstream Park Sprint. Mohaymen was not really in a great spot during the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream. The unbeaten colt, with Beyers of 87, 89, 95, and 95, should get a trip more conducive to his style in the Fountain of Youth. The most impressive part of his Holy Bull win was how Mohaymen opened up in the stretch despite a less-than-ideal setup. Given how much speed is in the Fountain of Youth, this looks like a better setup. Unless, of course, the brilliant and also unbeaten Awesome Banner gets loose on the lead and never comes back to the field. That absolutely could happen. The colt has won his three races by a combined 19 1/2 lengths, with Beyers of 90 and 94 in the Swale and Hutcheson. But there is no guarantee that Awesome Banner will run Saturday. Trainer Stanley Gold said Awesome Banner might be scratched from the Fountain of Youth in favor of the Tampa Bay Derby on March 12. Zulu also is unbeaten and also is fast, with Beyers of 82 and 86, but the colt is spotting Awesome Banner and Mohaymen tons of stakes experience. Those two have won five stakes combined. This is Zulu’s stakes debut. In the Davona Dale, Cathryn Sophia looks like a faster version of Stageplay and also enters with a set of omni figs. Cathryn Sophia is working on a 92, 94, 91 series and has won her races by nearly 35 lengths combined. Previously a front-runner, she showed another dimension in the Forward Gal, where she missed the break, sat off the pace, and ran away from the field in the stretch. She really could not have been much more impressive. How this race will be run is a bit of a mystery. Certainly, Cathryn Sophia is more than fast enough to lead going a mile, but there is no shortage of other speed, at least on paper. Dearest got a 70 Beyer in her debut last November and jumped up to an 88 last month in her second start. Another Beyer jump puts her in the conversation. Lewis Bay won the Demoiselle Stakes in late November but got just a 71. There certainly is a chance that this well-bred filly has a bigger number in her future, but she will have to make a big jump to catch Cathryn Sophia in this spot. R Girls a Charmer is another early-speed filly, with decent but not overwhelming Beyers of 82 and 80 in her two wins. It is absolutely going to take a triple-digit Beyer to win the Gulfstream Sprint. X Y Jet was always a nice horse but really was nothing special until his last three races, when he ran like a wild beast, with a Beyer series of 101, 108, and 105, and won by a combined 18 lengths. The common denominator in those wins was that X Y Jet cleared the field quickly and never gave the chasers a chance. With Trouble Kid outside of X Y Jet and Ready for Rye just inside of him, the hot horse might have company up top. How he will run under those circumstances and if he can put up another huge figure with company are open to debate. Ready for Rye was tremendous a year ago when he won the Swale Stakes at Gulfstream, getting a 105 Beyer. The colt got a 104 later in the year, so he certainly is capable. Trouble Kid finally ran a bad race last out after a six-month run of lights-out performances with a pair of triple-digit Beyers in the races prior to the bad one. If that was the aberration, Trouble Kid is a contender.