Gunnevera wins the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream.

HALLANDALE — The boys of South Florida summer racing put the racing world on notice Saturday that they will be tough to beat in this year’s spring classics. Gunnevera, who made his first three starts at Gulfstream’s summer meeting and is trained by South Florida year-rounder Antonio Sano, galloped to an overwhelming 5 3⁄4-length victory in the $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes to put himself at or near the top of the roster of Triple Crown prospects.

Three Rules, another Gulfstream summer horse, lost a photo for second to Practical Joke.

The way Gunnevera won, closing furiously from the back of the pack, convinced Sano he has the horse to beat at Churchill Downs. (Jockey Javier) “Castellano told me he did it very easy. Castellano has never won the Kentucky Derby. For me it’s the first time. This is the year.”

Sano, a native of Venezuela who came to Calder in 2009 and campaigns mostly inexpensive claiming horses, was so emotional in the winner’s circle he had trouble speaking. Others finished some of his sentences as he nodded. Even though he has been among the leading trainers the past few years, he said the victory in a race as big as the Fountain of Youth proved to him that he had made it in the U.S.

Sano went into the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth convinced he had the horse to beat after Gunnevera was forced to check in the turn of the Holy Bull yet still rallied for second. “I told my wife, ‘we will win, 100 percent.’”

Castellano allowed Gunnevera, off at 4-1, to drop to the back of the pack down the backstretch. “There was a lot of speed in the race. That was what I was looking for. He’s the kind of horse where you have to make one run. You can’t chase the pace, because you’re not going to finish. I let him follow the pace and he started picking it up little by little.”

He didn’t begin to become a serious factor until the field was entering the far turn. Once he did, he inhaled the field as if he had just joined the race. “Turning for home, I knew I had it,” Castellano said. Gunnevera completed a mile and a sixteenth in 1:44.25.

Irish War Cry, sent off as the even-money favorite after his wire-to-wire win in last month’s Holy Bull, chased Three Rules to the far turn then began to retreat and wound up beating only three of the 10 starters.

Trainer Graham Motion said he wanted to avoid making excuses, but his instincts are that he ran Irish War Cry back too quickly. Gunnevera came out of the same race.

Sano said Gunnevera will remain at Gulfstream and run in the $1 million Florida Derby on April 1. But, like the rest of the racing world, the race he most covets is the Run for the Roses on the first Saturday in May. “The Derby is as big a deal in Venezuela as it is in the U.S.,” Sano said. “Everything stops. Nobody works.”

This year, Venezuelans will have an extra incentive to pay attention.

/COURTESY Gunnevera, with Javier Castellano riding, won the Fountain of Youth by more than 5 3/4 lengths on Saturday.