Across the Board: Vekoma orders Fountain of Youth respect
Gulfstream Park will be putting on quite a show Saturday with nine graded stakes on the card headlined by the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth.
This measures up as the biggest day of racing at the South Florida oval outside of Pegasus World Cup (G1) and Florida Derby (G1) days — and its results will reverberate down the Kentucky Derby and Oaks trails.
A field of 11 has entered for the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth, and any of a number could go off as the favorite at post time should 9-5 top morning line choice Hidden Scroll not garner significant interest.
In addition to Hidden Scroll, I view the most prominent contenders as Vekoma and Global Campaign. None of those three have lost in their limited appearances to date.
Beyond that trio, we also have to give a close look to the Grade 2 winner Signalman, who enters off a layoff but has run well at the highest levels. He’s among the type of horses who have shown just enough to be taken seriously moving forward.
As I further analyzed this race, I was impressed by the stretch running profile of the Shug McGaughey-trained Code of Honor, who rallied from 10th to finish second at age 2 in the Champagne Stakes (G1) last October. Code of Honor has acted as if he will be a serious player in races beyond one mile. In his return to the races at Gulfstream on Jan. 5, this colt endured a rough trip when fourth in the Mucho Macho Man Stakes. In my mind, he lost no credibility.
Subsequently, Code of Honor has trained smoothly — and a tad more aggressively — at Payson Park. He looks ready to fire second off the shelf, and given the number of horses in this field who have good early zip, Code of Honor also seems likely to benefit from a somewhat contested early pace. The aforementioned Signalman and Bourbon War should likewise enjoy the setup.
The latter has rallied for his two victories in three career outings and Signalman has two wins and five in-the-money finishes. Among his best performances were his third-place result last fall in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs.
Make no mistake: Signalman is a good prospect for the longer races that we are likely to see in the Triple Crown series. Will he be fully cranked for Saturday? Moreover, we should take note of Bourbon War’s excellent recent workouts over this Gulfstream surface.
That rounds out the Fountain of Youth contenders that belong on tickets, as I believe a number of those could re-surface as we move closer to the Kentucky Derby.
In building plays here, I will first focus on the George Weaver-trained Vekoma, who is unbeaten in his two highly rated starts and making his 2019 seasonal debut off some solid works.
Steve Davidowitz has written many books on handicapping, including the classic, "Betting Thoroughbreds." His Across the Board columns appear regularly at Horse Racing Nation. Click here to read past editions.