Wildcat Red, General a Rod exit Fountain of Youth duel in good order

Wildcat Red, General a Rod exit Fountain of Youth duel in

good order

Owned by Honors Stable Corp., Wildcat Red has made all six of his

career starts at Gulfstream. He drew off stylishly in the Hutcheson three weeks ago

to score by 4 3/4 lengths, and the Fountain of Youth marked his first attempt around two

turns.

"He ate up and everything was fine," Galati continued. "He

came out perfect. He was full of himself and very, very happy. He'll be laying

down today. He relaxes. There's just something about him, he does everything

right. We're very happy with the way he came out of the race."

A son of D'wildcat,

Wildcat Red will attempt to stretch his speed in the Florida Derby in five

weeks' time. He and General a Rod were separated by a head at the wire, with

stretch-running favorite Top Billing winding up two lengths behind them in

third.

"(Jose is) going to make the inevitable decision, but today

I don't see any reason to have anything other than positives about the way he

ran and the way he came out of his race," Galati said. "We are all very, very

happy.

"(Top Billing), I guess the track bias was his excuse, but he ran his

race. The other horse (General a Rod), he's legit. He was one of the

better-looking ones in the race and I thought he was the one to watch anyway. He

was a fresh horse. (Trainer Todd) Pletcher's horse (Commissioner) just didn't fire, but he

looked great, too. It was a legit bunch. Like we said, it was a test."

General a Rod cooled out well after the Fountain of Youth,

according to trainer Mike Maker.

"He came out of the race just fine," Maker said.

"Everything was great, he just came out of it on the losing end. He didn't show

us anything that he didn't show us before; he just came out of it on the losing

end. We're still undecided (about his next start). There's a lot of races out

there, so we're just going to take our time and make a decision."

The Fountain of Youth offered Kentucky Derby qualifying

points of 50-20-10-5 to the first four finishers. East Hall, previously third in

the Gulfstream Park Derby, outran his 72-1 odds to round out the superfecta in

the Fountain of Youth and could get another crack at the winner in the Florida

Derby.

"East Hall is officially on the Derby trail because he got

five points," trainer Bill Kaplan confirmed. "I'm very proud of his performance.

He gained a length on even Top Billing in the stretch, and he got the jump on us

a little earlier. But he ran a superstar race, and he was still running at the

end. He came back fresh, and he's doing fine. There was a discussion of maybe

scratching from the 13 hole, but we decided to hang in there and it worked out

good.

"The top two horses ran all the way up front, and Top

Billing and he came from last and next-to-last against a speed-favoring track,"

Kaplan continued. "I was very pleased with my horse's performance. Everything in

our mind is looking toward the mile and a quarter in May. This sets up nice for

it."

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