Road to the Kentucky Derby 2022: Fountain of Youth Stakes

Fountain of Youth:

The Fountain of Youth Stakes is held annually at Gulfstream. This race was originally run in 1945 and has stuck to its original length of 1 1/16 mile. With 50 points awarded to the winner, the Fountain of Youth is considered a “win and your in”. It was a sunny, dry day at Gulfstream this year, but the race was considered slow.

Simplification, an eye-catching dark bay, stuck to the middle of the pack, as the colts raced around the first turn, but strayed towards the back on the backstretch. At the far turn, High Oak had a nasty fall where he did a front flip. Galt tried to jump over High Oak and threw his jockey. Galt and High Oak were both escorted off the track. Simplification was unaffected by the crash and lengthened his lead in the homestretch. Simplification is currently 3rd on the Kentucky Derby Leaderboard.  

In Due Time stuck to the front of the pack, until the backstretch, where he slowed to the middle. In

Due Time pulled himself to the front of the pack in time to avoid the crash. He appeared to be falling behind, but scraped in a placing on the homestretch. O Captain started in the very back, before moving towards the middle in the far turn. He was running next to Galt, and narrowly missed High Oak. He put the speed on in the homestretch as he ran on the outside, before finishing third. Emmanuel started in the back of the pack, but steadily moved forward on the backstretch. Emmanuel was in front of High Oak and avoided the accident. It appears he was about to move to the front, but Simplification cut him off. Overall, Emmanuel ran a very steady race.