Soldat left little doubt he’s just as capable on a fast track as he is over slop or grass after leading from start to finish en route to a two-length victory over Gourmet Dinner in Saturday’s $400,000 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park.
Flashpoint ran himself out of winter racing in New York with a powerful debut victory on Jan. 15. Who knows where, and how high, the colt might be headed now. Flashpoint dueled 3-5 favorite Travelin Man into submission around the far turn and ran off to a 7 1/4-length victory in the Grade 2, $150,000 Hutcheson Stakes on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.
Soldat put away To Honor and Serve turning for home and stamped himself as a major prospect for the 137th Kentucky Derby when speeding away to a clear-cut victory Saturday in the 65th running of the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Fla.
Arch Traveler stamped himself a potential candidate for the Grade 1 Florida Derby after beating a strong field of first-level allowance horses, including a game runner-up Nacho Business, by three-quarters of a length going a mile and one-eighth for the first time in Saturday’s third race.
The Factor and Sway Away, the one-two finishers in last Sunday’s San Vicente Stakes at Santa Anita, are the two additions to the top 20 of this week’s Derby Watch.
It was a strange week. The Factor, the fastest 3-year-old in the West, is not expected to contest the Santa Anita Derby. Clubhouse Ride, a durable 11-start "veteran," is sidelined with an injury.
To Honor and Serve will have the first of his two Kentucky Derby preps Saturday at Gulfstream Park, where he is the likely favorite in a field of eight 3-year-olds in the $400,000 Fountain of Youth. The 1 1/8-mile Fountain of Youth is one of three Grade 2 stakes for 3-year-olds on Saturday’s card, along with the $150,000 Hutcheson and $250,000 Davona Dale.
The race Boys At Tosconova ran in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile would’ve been good enough for first money many years, but the Rick Dutrow-trained Boys At Tosconova ran into a monster from the Todd Pletcher barn, Uncle Mo. That same dynamic might be at work in the Hutcheson Stakes on Saturday, where the flashy Dutrow maiden winner Flashpoint goes against the Pletcher-trained Travelin Man, among the sharpest debut winners of the Gulfstream meet.
Special Kid, who has improved dramatically since he was gelded, will get his first real test in Saturday's Borderland Derby, a 1 1/16-mile race that serves as the local prep for the Grade 3, $800,000 Sunland Park Derby on March 27.
Mont Pelato’s bold American ambitions start on Saturday at the unlikely venue of Cagnes-sur-Mer, where he will use the listed, $75,000 Prix Policeman at 1 1/4 miles as a trial for Keeneland’s Blue Grass Stakes.
