Good Magic ready to start season in Fountain of Youth

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – A field of at least seven 3-yearolds, led by reigning divisional champion Good Magic, is shaping up for next Saturday’s Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Good Magic, based at the Palm Meadows training center with Chad Brown, was on schedule to have his final prerace breeze Saturday toward the Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth. It was to be the sixth timed workout since the Curlin colt got a break following his 4 1/4-length victory in the Nov. 4 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar.

Besides Good Magic, the lineup for the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth is expected to include Free Drop Billy, Strike Power, Marconi, Storm Runner, Promises Fulfilled, and Belle Tapisserie. Another longshot or two could enter the picture by the time entries are taken Wednesday.

The Fountain of Youth, with 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points awarded to the winner, is effectively a Win and You’re In toward the May 5 Derby. In all, 85 points are available for the top four finishers.

The Fountain of Youth is the centerpiece of what will be another huge Saturday of stakes at Gulfstream. Eight other stakes will be carded, all but one graded. Here’s an early look at a few: Grade 2, $200,000 Davona Dale: Fly So High, an impressive winner of a Jan. 4 Gulfstream allowance for the Phipps Stable and Shug McGaughey, will have Jose Ortiz back aboard as the likely favorite in this Kentucky Oaks points race. Other probables for the one-mile race include Alter Moon, Cache, Cicatrix, and Dictate Cool.

Dictate Cool will be making her first start for Brown after winning her lone prior start in a Jan. 13 maiden race at Laurel Park. Grade 2, $200,000 Mac

Diarmida: Trainer Mike Maker, a major force in the older turf division in recent seasons, said he intends to enter three horses in this 1 3/8-mile turf race – Markitoff, Oscar Nominated, and Run Time. Other probables include Big Bend, Durocher, Nessy, One Go All Go, and Sadler’s Joy. Grade 3, $100,000 Gulfstream Park Sprint: Mind Your Biscuits was scheduled to breeze Saturday at Palm Meadows to determine whether or not he will use this as a stepping-stone toward a title defense in the $2 million Dubai Golden Shaheen on March 31.

With or without him, this 6 1/2-furlong race for older horses is expected to get Three Rules, Noholdingback Bear, Extravagant Kid, Unbridled Outlaw, and a few more. Grade 3, $100,000 Here-comesthebride: Thewayiam will be going for her third Gulfstream stakes victory of the new year in this 1 1/16-mile turf race, having already won the Ginger Brew and Sweetest Chant for Jose Ortiz and trainer Graham Motion. A medium-sized field appears likely. $100,000 Sand Springs:

Celestine, an earner of more than $1.1 million, could be making her final career start as the favorite in this one-mile turf race.

The other stakes on tap are the Grade 3, $150,000 The Very One; the Grade 3, $150,000 Canadian Turf; and the Grade 3, $100,000 Palm Beach.

Enticed, Avery Island plans set

Plans for Godolphin’s Enticed and Avery Island were confirmed this week as both continued their training at Palm Meadows for Kiaran McLaughlin.

Enticed, a disappointing fourth behind Audible in the Feb. 3 Holy Bull in his seasonal debut, breezed an easy halfmile in 53.80 seconds Thursday ahead of his next start in the March 10 Gotham at Aqueduct. The Medaglia d’Oro colt ended his 2-year-old season by winning the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes.

Avery Island, winner of the Grade 3 Withers earlier this month at Aqueduct, was scheduled to work Saturday. McLaughlin said he intends just one more Derby prep, the March 24 Louisiana Derby, for the Street Sense colt.

“After this, he’ll breeze two more times,” McLaughlin said.

Meanwhile, Audible also had his first work since the Holy Bull, going a half-mile Thursday in 49.40 seconds at Palm Beach Downs for Todd Pletcher.

Overnight purses get boost

Gulfstream Park has announced a 10 percent increase in overnight purses for the final four weeks of its championship meet, which ends April 1. The increase will become effective with the card of Wednesday, March 7.

General manager Billy Badgett said in a press release that the track is up about 9 percent in all-sources handle at a meet that began Dec. 2.

To this point, maiden special races at Gulfstream have been worth as much as $50,000, with first-level allowances worth $51,000 and a secondlevel allowance worth $52,000. Stakes purses are not affected by the increase.

Pearl Chain gets a winner

The first victory in more than 17 years for female trainer Pearl Chain came in the first race at Gulfstream on Friday when Asian Moonlady rallied to a 16-1 upset in the conditioned $6,250 claimer.

Prior to a third-place finish in a Feb. 1 race by Asian Moonlady, Chain had not saddled a horse in her name since Huckster’s Girl won at Suffolk Downs on Oct. 7, 2000.

Brit jockey in U.S. for Clement

British jockey Hayley Turner has been exercising horses at Payson Park for trainer Christophe Clement in anticipation of reviving her riding career this spring in France.

“She has been here about a week and plans to spend about a month,” Clement said Friday. “She is enjoying the sunshine in Florida, getting fit, before she returns to Europe to start riding again in France.”

Turner, 34, is best known in the United States for winning the Grade 1 Beverly D. in 2012 aboard I’m A Dreamer. She is currently serving a controversial three-month suspension handed to her by the British Horseracing Authority for placing bets while still licensed as a jockey.