Promises Fulfilled wins the Fountain of Youth

Hallandale Beach, Fla. — Promises Fulfulled was a surprise wire-to-wire winner Saturday in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, one of the big early preps on the road to the Kentucky Derby.

Starting from the outside post, Promises Fulfilled went straight to the lead and kept holding off challengers as he made his way around 1 1/16 miles of the dirt at Gulfstream Park. It was the third win in four starts for the Dale Romans trainee, who went off at 18-1 and paid $38.40 after winning in 1 minute, 44.17 seconds under jockey Irad Ortiz Jr.

Strike Power was second, after several attempts to pass Promises Fulfilled down the stretch came up empty.

"The trainer told me to go to the lead and hold on," said Ortiz, who rode five winners at Gulfstream on the day. "When I asked my horse, he just took off again. He was impressive today. He ran the whole race. He broke great and was ready. The trainer was right."

Good Magic — the overwhelming favorite — was third. Good Magic won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile last year, won the Eclipse Award as the top 2-year-old, was ridden by Eclipse Award jockey Jose Ortiz and is trained by twotime reigning Eclipse Award winner Chad Brown. But even connections like that wasn't enough to get Good Magic to the lead.

"The latter part of the race, he didn't have it," Brown said. "The horses that were 1-2 the whole way just kicked ahead of him. The horse came back a little tired. He was blowing pretty good. It looked like he needed the race."