Kentucky Derby: Fountain of Youth an important first step for Joseph, Chance It

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – He was bitten early by the racing bug, so much so that, from a young age, training was all he ever wanted to do. He remembers marveling at the exploits of Cigar in the mid 1990s, and in the late 1990s was captivated by the American Triple Crown, seeing the same faces show up every year.

“Bob Baffert. D. Wayne Lukas. Nick Zito. Those three guys, every year, competing in the Triple Crown races,” Saffie Joseph Jr. recalled Wednesday morning at Gulfstream Park. “I remember Real Quiet just getting beat going for the Triple Crown. It hurt me. I just wanted to see a Triple Crown winner.”

Joseph was standing along the outer rail of the backstretch at Gulfstream Park, not far from his barn, watching his horses train. At age 33, he has become one of the most successful trainers in the game – he entered Wednesday’s card third in the trainer standings here, behind only Todd Pletcher and Mike Maker – and has an opportunity to embark, for the first time, on the Kentucky Derby trail. He has entered Chance It, winner of the Mucho Macho Man here last month, in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth on Saturday.

The route here for Joseph was challenging. He grew up in Barbados, the son of a trainer whose main occupation was running an offtrack betting shop. There, though, “it’s for love and prestige,” but the allure of the horses was captivating.

“It’s all I ever wanted to do my whole life,” Joseph said. “I’d be with them all afternoon, all evening, until my mom yelled at me to come inside.”

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Joseph initially began training on his own in Barbados, and at age 22 swept the country’s Triple Crown. In 2011, Joseph and his father relocated to South Florida, hoping, one day, to play on the same level as the trainers he admired all those years earlier. They bought four horses at a sale in Ocala, but couldn’t get stalls at Calder, so they had to lease space nearby.

“That’s basically how it was the first four or five years,” Joseph said. “We’d pick up one owner here, one owner there.”

For the years 2011 to 2016, Joseph never won more than 19 races, and only once had more than 100 starters.

But the last few years, Joseph has been a star ascendant. He won 35 races from 170 starters in 2017, was 57 for 242 in 2018 while breaking the $1 million mark in yearly earnings for the first time, then last year won 95 races from 370 starters while earning $3,877,156, highlighted by the victory of Math Wizard in the Pennsylvania Derby.

“The last year and half, things have really picked up,” Joseph said. “We’ve always had a good percentage, we just didn’t have the numbers. We’ve picked up more owners – like Mike Ryan, Frank Calabrese, Paul Braverman – amazing owners who have given us a chance to succeed. We want to be at this level, competing with the best. Our owners put us in this position.”

His father is a regular presence at the barn, and a trusted sounding board.

“We argue all day long, then come to good decisions,” Joseph said. “He’s a big help. I think I’m living his dream, too. He had to work a regular job in Barbados to make money. You can’t make a living there just training.”

Joseph has approximately 68 horses, and the quality of horses in the barn has kept pace with the quantity. In addition to Math Wizard and Chance It, he also trains the unbeaten 3-year-old filly Tonalist’s Shape, who won last month’s Forward Gal and is scheduled to run Saturday in the Davona Dale.

Chance It, a colt by Currency Swap, was a bit of a handful when Joseph first started training him.

“First day, he’s going to go to the track, I’m walking him, and he goes up on his hind legs from here,” Joseph said, pointing to a gap in his shed row, “all the way to the end and around the corner. It felt like 10 minutes, even though it was basically 25 seconds.”

After a strong series of works, Chance It debuted in June, finishing second as the 8-5 favorite. He has won four times in five starts since, his lone loss coming in August when beaten a head in the Florida Sire Affirmed Stakes as the 3-10 favorite while nearly 18 lengths in front of the third horse.

He won going 1 1/16 miles – the Fountain of Youth distance – in the Florida Sire In Reality in September, then came off a three-month layoff and downed Fountain of Youth rival As Seen on Tv in a thriller in the Mucho Macho Man, a one-turn mile. Sole Volante, who finished third, exited that race to win the Sam Davis.

On Wednesday, Chance It landed the outside post when a surprisingly large field of 12 was entered in the Fountain of Youth, which offers 50 points to the winner towards a berth in the Kentucky Derby on May 2. Inside him, from the rail out, are Candy Tycoon, Makabim, Masterday, The Falcon, Dennis’ Moment, As Seen On Tv, Country Grammer, Gear Jockey, Liam’s Lucky Charm, Shotski, and Ete Indien.

“The Derby is always in the back of your mind, but I don’t want to think too far ahead,” Joseph said. “This race is very important. This is the task right now. If we’re fortunante enough to win, the ball’s in our court in terms of where we want to go and what we want to do.”