Weekend GamePlan for March 5, 2022: Picks for Fountain of Youth, Kilroe Mile, Buena Vista

This is an excellent Saturday of American racing, with blockbuster cards at Gulfstream Park and Santa Anita and an interesting renewal of the Gotham at Aqueduct.

I considered several horses at Gulfstream that ultimately didn’t make the three-race Weekend GamePlan cut: Mira Mission in the Canadian Turf, Girl With a Dream in the Davona Dale, Main Event in the Palm Beach, and In Italian in the Honey Fox.

On to the actual races.

Fountain of Youth

It’s an old handicapping story. Often, when a race appears on paper to have too much speed, everyone sees the same thing, a bunch of expected pace players take back, and the tempo winds up slower than expected. Still, it’s hard to foresee that happening in the Fountain of Youth. Six horses have TimeformUS early pace numbers of 102 or higher, including Simplication, the default morning-line favorite with Mo Donegal’s expected scratch.

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Among those six is In Due Time, whom I nearly took to win, and whom I expect to stalk the pace from the second flight. The early pace number aside, In Due Time is not truly a speed horse. He settled nicely, albeit behind a fast pace, and finished full of run when stretched to a one-turn mile Feb. 4, beating a Todd Pletcher-trained heavy favorite.

In Due Time is a very attractive colt, progressing at an opportune moment. Video of his Feb. 18 Palm Meadows bullet breeze showed a blossoming horse – and a fast one, too. The colt looks confident and had no issue racing inside, behind, and among rivals last time, but I want a little better price on a horse stepping up in class while making his two-turn debut in a bulky field.

Rattle N Roll likely goes off meaningfully lower than his 12-1 morning line. He’s an obvious beneficiary of a pace meltdown, having won the Breeders’ Futurity with such a trip, but I wonder if he’ll need this race. Trainer Kenny McPeek a couple weeks ago already was talking about going to the March 26 Louisiana Derby with Rattle N Roll, saying he liked the spacing between races and believed the long homestretch in New Orleans would suit Rattle N Roll.

Mo Donegal’s scratch allows Galt into the field. I’ll hope for at least 15-1 and take him to win. Post 12 is obviously a difficult draw with with a short run to the first turn in 1 1/16-mile Gulfstream dirt races, but not impossible.

Galt got in two runs at age 2, racing with blinkers, but clearly wasn’t close to a formed racehorse last year. Blinkers came off and he notched a grinding, off-pace, two-turn maiden win Dec. 26, and I thought it was remarkable he popped to the lead in the Holy Bull, setting a relatively strong pace and holding well for fourth.

That major forward move has been followed by notably fast Payson Park drills for trainer Bill Mott, and if Joel Rosario can find any sort of first-turn position, he could be sitting on a live longshot.

Kilroe Mile

Other than the Keeneland Turf Mile, run over a very tricky course, Space Traveller has gotten no luck at all during the North American phase of his career. After post 12 hurt him in the Ft. Lauderdale, post 1 in the Pegasus World Cup Turf, where he might well have been best, did Space Traveller no favors.

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The trouble into the first turn was no fault of the rider, but had the jockey just stayed inside at the three-sixteenths pole, maybe the horse gets up in time. This time, breaking from post 8 in a field with sufficient speed, Space Traveller can get a much cleaner run, and I’ll take him to beat Count Again and win the Kilroe.

Buena Vista

Meet another unlucky horse: Closing Remarks. This filly didn’t fire over the sodden Keeneland lawn last fall but otherwise turned in nothing but strong turf performances during 2021, finding at least mild trouble in every start. Perhaps that is just the nature of her style, but I’ll guess circumstances played the greater role.

Going Global is a very, very nice filly, but if she and Closing Remarks reversed trips when they met last year, Closing Remarks would have been winning those races. Trainer Carla Gaines gave Closing Remarks a confidence builder dropping her to allowance company Jan. 17, and now the filly is ready to step up and land an overdue first graded-stakes win.