Hidden Scroll camp to 'turn the page' after Fountain of Youth

Trainer Bill Mott exited Hidden Scroll’s fourth-place finish Saturday in the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes wondering, in hindsight, if connections should have sought an easier spot for the flashy debut winner than the 2019 Kentucky Derby trail.

“But I guess we felt we wanted to find some things about him today,” Mott said, “and we found out we weren’t ready for this.”

Hidden Scroll, off as the odds-on favorite, broke well at Gulfstream Park but wound up in a pace duel to the outside of hopeless longshot Gladiator King. Those two kicked two lengths clear of third-place Global Campaign up the back stretch, while it was another four lengths to the rest of the pack led by eventual winner Code of Honor.

“At the end of the day, he wound up going pretty quick,” Mott said.

Hidden Scroll, a son of Hard Spun who won by 14 lengths in his only previous start back on Jan. 26, put away Gladiator King through an opening half mile in 45.69 seconds — that, mind you, for a 1 1/16-mile race.

“I was kind of hoping we might be able to lay in behind (Gladiator King), and as it was we were up heads apart the first part,” Mott added. “I was kind of hoping to be tucked in behind him, but it didn’t work out that way.”

“The trip was fine, but in the beginning he showed too much speed,” added Hidden Scroll’s jockey, Joel Rosario. “He did that last time and he stayed on, but going two turns today for the first time he got a little tired in the end.”

First out, Hidden Scroll also had the benefit of a sealed, sloppy racetrack that arguably benefitted the front-runner that day. But on the back of a 104 Beyer Speed Figure — best for this 3-year-old crop so far — the Juddmonte Farms homebred still sized up as the Fountain of Youth favorite.

Hidden Scroll hit the top of the stretch in the lead, but the margin dwindled. Code of Honor hooked off the rail, went by, and the favorite mustered fourth, beaten three lengths at the short stretch finish line.

Whether this effort closes the book on Hidden Scroll’s attempts to qualify for the Derby remains to be seen.

“I would have loved to have gone in 46 and three and maybe we would have had a little more to finish up with,” Mott said. “He got wrapped up in basically kind of a speed duel in a sense with a horse he shouldn’t have been. Anyway, that’s history. We’ll turn the page.”

Mott, known as a conservative Hall of Fame trainer, will also be represented by Hidden Scroll's workmate Tacitus in next Saturday's Tampa Bay Derby (G2). The first foal out of champion Close Hatches broke his maiden last out as a 2-year-old at Aqueduct.

On Friday, Mott's barn managed a silver lining for this weekend, too, when Grade 1-placed Mucho returned a winner in allowance optional claiming company at Gulfstream Park, making him eligible to hit the trail, too.

Mott has saddled eight previous Derby starters, most recently seventh-place finisher Hofburg in 2018, marking his best result in the Run for the Roses. Hofburg remains in training for a 4-year-old campaign.