Fountain of Youth S.

Simplification (Not This Time) was named the 2022 Florida-bred Horse of the Year in a vote by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association board of directors. Bred by France Weiner and her late husband Irwin Weiner, Simplification, who was also named the 2022 Florida-bred Champion 3-Year-Old Colt, was recognized for his victories in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. in April and in the Mucho Macho Man S. in January, both at Gulfstream. He also produced several other graded-stakes performances in 2022 including a fourth-place finish in the...

St. Elias Stable and Repole Stable's GI Kentucky Derby favorite Forte (Violence) arrived at Churchill Downs on Monday following a 14-hour van ride from trainer Todd Pletcher's winter base of Palm Beach Downs in South Florida. Last year's champion juvenile colt bedded down in his barn 39 and joined fellow Derby hopefuls Kingsbarns (Uncle Mo) and Tapit Trice (Tapit), both who arrived in Louisville on Sunday. Forte, who won last year's G1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and G1 Hopeful S. before being honored with the Eclipse Award, has won both the...

Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's Forte (Violence) returned to the worktab at Palm Beach Downs Friday in preparation for a scheduled start in the $1-million GI Curlin Florida Derby Apr. 1 at Gulfstream Park. The Todd Pletcher-trained 2022 Eclipse Award-winning 2-year-old male breezed for the first time since his tour-de-force 2023 debut in the GII Fountain of Youth S. Mar. 4 at Gulfstream Park. He breezed a half-mile in :50.72 under regular jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr. "I thought it was super. The horse is doing extremely well. He came...

General Jim (Into Mischief), third choice at 6-1 on the morning line for Saturday's GII Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream, will be scratched, reports trainer Shug McGaughey. The horse missed a day of training after developing a cough. "He ran a little temperature," McGaughey said.  "It went right down and he is doing fine but I didn't feel right running in this race." McGaughey said that the colt will remain on the Kentucky Derby trail and should be ready to go in another prep within a few weeks. "I...

The first Saturday in May is the ultimate goal on the GI Kentucky Derby trail. But the first Saturday in March is often a make-or-break day on the national calendar, with key stakes in Florida, California and New York providing an uptick in intensity. 1) ARABIAN KNIGHT (c, Uncle Mo--Borealis Night, by Astrology) 'TDN Rising Star'. O-Zedan Racing Stables, Inc.; B-Corser Thoroughbreds LLC (KY); T-Tim Yakteen. Sales history: $250,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP; $2,300,000 2yo '22 OBSAPR. Lifetime Record: GSW, 2-2-0-0, $544.275 Last start: 1st GIII Southwest S. at Oaklawn Park,...

Tami Bobo's Simplification (Not This Time) breezed five-furlongs in 1:01.83 Friday morning at Gulfstream Park in preparation for a scheduled start in the May 7 GI Kentucky Derby. It was the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. winner's first work since finishing third in the GI Curlin Florida Derby Apr. 2. Junior Alvarado was aboard for the breeze, subbing for jockey Jose Ortiz. "He galloped out six furlongs in 1:15.3, the seven furlongs in 1:27 and the mile in 1:40," trainer Antonio Sano said. "Excellent. I'm so happy with my...

On the opening day of the OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, just 7 1/2 weeks ahead of the First Saturday in May, buyers will have a chance to purchase the half-siblings to a pair of GI Kentucky Derby contenders. The first of the two to go through the ring Mar. 15 will be an Always Dreaming half-brother to GII Risen Star S. winner Epicenter (Not This Time). Consigned by Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables as Hip 121, the bay is out of stakes winner and GSP Silent Candy (Candy Ride...

On the day that the leading grass juvenile of 2020 rolls the dice on the GI Kentucky Derby trail, here's a really important question for every American horseman. Just what was it about European turf star Mishriff (Ire) that qualified him to run down as irresistible a dirt runner as Charlatan (Speightstown) for the richest prize in our sport last weekend? The answer is so straightforward that it condenses into a single word, yet the implications continue to elude almost everyone in our industry. And that word is: opportunity. There...

Breeders' Cup winner Fire At Will (Declaration of War) tuned up for his 3-year-old debut Saturday at Gulfstream Park with a five-furlong move in 1:02.75. He is slated to start in the Feb. 27 GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. "Everything went smooth," said trainer Michael Maker of the Three Diamonds Farm's runner's work. "He's ready to go." Fire At Will broke his maiden over a sealed but sloppy main track at Saratoga in the With Anticipation S. in September, then captured the GII Pilgrim S. over the Belmont lawn...

Never mind a Fountain of Youth. Right now we find ourselves in need of a rather more pressing therapy. Without wishing to be impertinent, in Europe it does feel as though the insidious economic peril of coronavirus--quite apart from its biological impact, deadly as that can be--has been grasped rather more urgently on one side of the Atlantic than the other. That's perfectly understandable, given its unexplained foothold in Italy at a time when the U.S. President could still declare that domestic cases would "within a couple of days... be...

Dennis Albaugh didn't want to spend $1 million to acquire Thousands Words (Pioneerof the Nile) at the 2018 Keeneland September sale. Albaugh is among the wealthiest people in the sport, but even he has a comfort zone, and says he normally doesn't go beyond $400,000. But, if you want something special, you have to pay for it. And Albaugh and his team of advisors thought Thousand Words was the kind of can't-miss prospect every owner yearns to have. "Normally, we try to find horses in the $200,000 to $400,000 range,"...

No doubt about it: if he can keep going the way he has started, this horse has the potential to open plenty of doors onto our sport. Pending any such breakout, however, let's first acknowledge a man on the inside--one quite likely to be lost from growing attention should Chance It add another unfeasible chapter to his story in the GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth S. on Saturday. Chance It's journey, to this point, has the potential to engage a wider public precisely because it has been so divergent from...