Walsh: Thursday allowance 'a nice step' for Prevalence

Prevalence, a possible Kentucky Derby contender, will run in a Thursday allowance race at Gulfstream Park after a brief setback from a minor illness.

Prevalence looked strong in his debut at Gulfstream on Jan. 23, blowing away the rest of the field going seven furlongs to win by 8 1/2 lengths. After that race, trainer Brendan Walsh pointed him toward the Fountain of Youth (G2), a major Derby points race, but the Medaglia d’Oro colt became ill and had to miss the race.

Now fully recovered, Prevalence has returned to the work tab, most recently Friday at Pam Meadows, where he went five furlongs in 1:00.6.

“That was just a minor issue we had, but it was just bad timing,” Walsh said on Monday. “He’s back doing good, his last two works have been very good, so we’re all set for Thursday.”

The $52,000 allowance race has the Godolphin homebred as the heavy morning line favorite at 4-5. The colt will start from the outside position in the six-horse field.

“I think it’s a nice step going from the seven to the one-turn mile,” Walsh said. “I’d like to see him run well and obviously going that bit further, it’ll be interesting to see how he handles that. He handled the track well there the last time.”

Second choice is Caxambas Candy, trained by David Fawkes, the 9-2 morning line second choice. The Twirling Candy colt won on debut Feb. 17, starting from the rail and winning the one-mile race by 4 3/4 lengths.

Prevalence still still have a chance to be in the Run for the Roses, provided everything goes well on Thursday. Walsh was non-committal but mentioned a few possibilities, including the Arkansas Derby (G1) on April 10 at Oaklawn, the Blue Grass (G2) on April 3 at Keeneland and the Wood Memorial (G2) on April 3 at Aqueduct.

“We’ll see how Thursday goes first,” Walsh said. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself and tempt fate.”

Race 8 at Gulfstream Park on Thursday is set to go off at 4:44 p.m. EST.