Horse Racing: Soldat wins Fountain of Youth and is ready for Kentucky
The Fountain of Youth Stakes took place in Gulfstream Park on Saturday, in the USA. The Grade 2 event was held over a distance of 1 mile and 1 furlong on a track of dirt ground and was open to horses at the age of three years only.
The event is the main Gulfstream Park trial for the Grade 1 Florida Derby due to take place on April 3, and brought attention to the prospect of an important and formidable contestant for the Kentucky Derby in the form of Soldat; the horse is trained
by Kiaran McLaughlin and was ridden by Alan Garcia in the race, and was the start-to-finish victor of the Fountain of Youth Stakes.
Soldat’s achievements include him being placed as the runner-up for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf last year; however, he was switched back to dirt which led to the horse claiming an unexpected win on his 2011 debut last month, at a shoddy Aqueduct
run.
The horse, sired by War Front, was as unexpected to be the 7-5 favourite over the twice Grade 2 winner To Honor And Serve in the Fountain of Youth, as he was as the winner. Soldat was set to be first since the inside draw and blazed past his rivals,
though he faced slight difficulty earlier in overcoming the outsider, El Grayling.
To Honor And Serve, trained by Bill Mott and ridden by Ramon Domiguez, seemed to be an intimidating opponent on the far turn but was worn out badly in the course of the stretch. On the other hand, Soldat and Gourmet Dinner went head-to-head, both trying
to gain advantage over the other and soon Soldat outran Gourmet Dinner by two lengths and left him behind to take second place.
Champion jockey, Alan Garcia spoke to the reporters about the race and said that he was proud and ecstatic by the performance of Soldat. He said that he wanted to go easy on the horse but it seemed that Soldat was on fire and was invincible.
Trainer McLaughlin, based in New York, agreed with Garcia and added that the horse’s performance has been improving and he was delighted by how fast he bagged the race. The trainer also informed reporters that they will be going ahead to the Florida
derby since the timing is ideal for them; that is, five weeks from now to the Florida Derby and five more weeks from that to the Kentucky Derby.
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