The GII Fountain of Youth S. may have received a few key scratches that diminished the overall quality of the field, but Danny Gargan won't let that take anything away from the victory earned by his trainee Dornoch (Good Magic). As this week's Green Group Guest of the Week on the TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland, Gargan recapped Saturday's Fountain of Youth score and made a case for why we still haven't seen the best from Dornoch.
“We've just gotta get someone fast enough to get next to him,” Gargan explained. “If someone will get next to him, you're going to see a fast horse. I mean, he does explode working. But Luis [Saez] was just sitting there playing around. He'll wait on competition because he wants to play. He's a big boy and wants the competition.”
While the goal was originally for Dornoch to get some experience coming from behind horses, the game plan changed after a late scratch from Todd Pletcher trainee Speak Easy (Constitution), who got loose behind the gate. Gargan had to break out his running shoes to get to Saez before the horses started loading.
“Right where the stand is where they do the interviews and they're on TV, I ran down to the track where the horses walk on and Luis was right around that area. We had to have a conversation again, but he knew what we wanted at that stage. He's a pretty smart kid…I had to change our game plan completely because I didn't want to be behind one of those horses and have them get in our way. So we went ahead and decided to just go to the lead.”
The plan was a success as Dornoch, who is a full-brother to last year's GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage, wired a field of five and earned 50 points on the road to the Kentucky Derby. Gargan has said that he is considering either the GI Florida Derby or the GI Blue Grass S. for the colt's next start. On the show, he reported that he's leaning toward the Blue Grass, but should have a final decision at some point later next week.
Until then, he plans to soak up the experience of the Derby trail. A native of Louisville, Gargan has been to the Kentucky Derby once before in 2019 with Tax (Arch), who finished fourteenth, but this time around he said his outlook is a bit different.
“We're just going to enjoy where we're at right now,” Gargan said. “We're lucky enough that we didn't have to run that hard to get the points. We're already probably in the race. I believe we have a horse that, if we get him in the gate on the first Saturday in May, he'd have a chance to win it. So it's a totally different ballpark and it's a fun thing to be a part of. Hopefully we get lucky and we're there.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is sponsored by Coolmore's Epicenter, WinStar Farm's Global Campaign, the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, 1/ST Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds and XBTV.com, the team of Randy Moss, Zoe Cadman and T.D. Thornton reviewed all the major Kentucky Derby and Oaks prep races from coast to coast and questioned the implications the many scratches might have had on the weekend's results. They also took a look at the new Tapeta track at Santa Anita, as well as the announcement of 1/ST's new racing series and the GI Preakness S. purse increase.
Click here to watch the show.
Click here for the audio-only version.
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