Can Flashpoint Go the Distance?

John Fort does not have any regrets about deciding to bypass the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) with Flashpoint, but after watching the front runners set some of the softest opening fractions in the past quarter century of the race, he admits he has thought about what might have been.

Flashpoint, though not a need-the-lead type of horse, has exceptional early speed and could have gone a long way on the front end if he had been at Churchill Downs last weekend. By virtue of his Hutcheson (gr. II) win and fourth-place finish in the Florida Derby (gr. I), Flashpoint was eligible for the Derby in terms of graded earnings. However, Fort decided to shoot for the May 21 Preakness Stakes (gr. I) instead.