Prevalence connections to reassess after 'minor' setback

Prevalence, the Godolphin homebred who broke his maiden last month in a flashy 8 1/2-length victory at Gulfstream, has had a little setback on the Kentucky Derby trail.

Jimmy Bell, president of Godolphin USA, said Monday that after spiking a fever sometime in the last week, the Medaglia d’Oro colt is “back galloping, doing fine.”

Calling the timing “a little unfortunate,” he said, “it just makes you have to kind of reassess what your next step is.”

And that reassessment is at least a little way off for Prevalence, who is trained by Brendan Walsh.

“We'll get him back on the work tab and just take it from there,” Bell said. “It's not too early, not too late, so we'll just see where we get to. He's going tell us anyway. Brendan will work him soon, we hope, and we'll make a decision after that.”

Bell said he and Walsh would have "taken a look" if a 1 1/16-mile allowance race was offered. "Otherwise, had he trained well, the Fountain of Youth would have been a serious consideration."

The Grade 2 Fountain of Youth will be held Saturday at Gulfstream.

In his debut, Prevalence covered 7 furlongs in 1:23.0 under a hand ride, earning an 89 Beyer Speed Figure. That was enough to put him in a tie for sixth choice in the current Nevada futures, at a best price of 20-1.

Until the setback, Prevalence “couldn’t have been happier,” Bell said. “He just came out of his race in super order. And really, you know, until you get these little unforeseen hiccups everything was good. This is, in the grand scheme of things, fairly minor.”