Wide-open Fountain of Youth draws full field

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - A full and extremely contentious field of 12 3-year-olds, plus one also-eligible, was drawn Monday for Saturday’s $400,000 Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream Park, the final key local prep for the $1 million Florida Derby on April 2. The mile and one-sixteenth fixture carries the added significance of offering 85 Kentucky Derby qualifying points, 50 of which are awarded to the winner.

The Fountain of Youth will go as the 12th event on a 13-race program Saturday that includes seven other graded stakes.

A majority of the top 3-year-olds stabled in South Florida have signed on for the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, the main exception being White Abarrio, runaway winner of the Grade 3 Holy Bull, who will bypass the race to await the Florida Derby. But the field is strong nonetheless and includes Simplification and Mo Donegal, the second- and third-place finishers, respectively, in the Holy Bull; Grade 1 winner Rattle N Roll; the speedy and undefeated Emmanuel; the Dale Romans-trained pair of Giant Game and Howling Time; and Grade 2 winner High Oak.

Other key contenders are allowance winners A. P.’s Secret and In Due Time, as well as Dean Delivers, runner-up in the Grade 3 Swale.

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In post-position order, the field for the Fountain of Youth will line up from the rail out with Markhamian (Marco Menesses); Simplification (Jose Ortiz); Howling Time (Joe Talamo); In Due Time (Paco Lopez); Dean Delivers (Miguel Vasquez); Rattle N Roll (Brian Hernandez Jr); A. P.’s Secret (Tyler Gaffalione); Emmanuel (Luis Saez); High Oak (Junior Alvarado); Giant Game (Corey Lanerie); O Captain (Emisael Jaramillo); and Mo Donegal (Irad Ortiz Jr). Galt (Joel Rosario) is on the also-eligible list.

Simplification showed a new dimension when benefiting from patient handling by jockey Javier Castellano following a slow start to finish second trying two turns for the first time in the Holy Bull. Ortiz, who breezed Simplification for the first time here last Saturday, has picked up the mount from trainer Antonio Sano in the Fountain of Youth.

Mo Donegal broke slow and did not seem to find his best stride until too late while finishing just a head behind Simplification in the Holy Bull while making his first start since capturing the Grade 2 Remsen in game fashion at Aqueduct two months earlier. His chances could be somewhat compromised in the Fountain of Youth after drawing post 12 considering the short run to the first turn in races decided at 1 1/16 miles over the main track at Gulfstream Park.

Rattle N Roll has not started since rallying to a very impressive 4 1/4-length triumph in the mile and one-sixteenth Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland on Oct. 9.

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Howling Time is also returning off an extended layoff after finishing fifth in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club on Nov. 27. He missed a scheduled start in the Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs due to a minor illness.

His stablemate Giant Game was a major disappointment finishing far back in the Holy Bull following a promising third-place effort behind Corniche in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, and subsequently underwent minor throat surgery.

Emmanuel, Mo Donegal’s uncoupled stablemate from the barn of trainer Todd Pletcher, has won his only two starts in one-sided fashion. He captured his debut going a mile here by 6 3/4 lengths on Dec. 11 and an entry-allowance by a comfortable 4 1/2 lengths stretching around two turns for the first time on Jan. 30 at Tampa Bay Downs.

High Oak won the Grade 2 Saratoga Special but is another coming off a long layoff, having been idle since a fourth-place finish in the Grade 1 Hopeful on Sept. 6.