Youth Stakes

The Florida Derby on Saturday should be nothing more than another showcase for the incredible talents of Fly So Free, if you listen to his trainer, Scotty Schulhofer."

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- Dance Floor and Pistols And Roses, the 1-2 finishers in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, will switch places in the starting gate for tomorrow's Florida Derby.Dance Floor, which had the rail in the earlier event, drew the 11 hole yesterday, when 12 horses were entered for the $500,000 race. Pistols And Roses, which had the 10 post position in the Fountain of Youth, moved inside to No. 5.Gulfstream Park oddsmaker Chuck Streva still made Dance Floor a strong 7-5 favorite.Streva likened the 3-year-old colt to the older Sea Cadet, who won the Donn Handicap decisively, then reaffirmed that win about a month later with a 7 1/2 -length victory in the Gulfstream Park Handicap.

ARCADIA, Calif. - There's a point every year when the focus sharpens and the eyes fix upon those significant races that produce the meaningful horses who will strive to make history on the first Saturday in May. "We're coming up on it. We sure are," D. Wayne Lukas, trainer of four Kentucky Derby winners, said yesterday. "We're going to sort the pretenders from the contenders, and quickly now." This weekend unleashes a flurry of March races from coast to coast that will showcase every major contender for the Kentucky Derby.

Woods of Windsor, perhaps the best Maryland-bred who could compete in this spring's Triple Crown races, faces his sternest career test today when he runs in the first division of the $150,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park.But he is just one of three Ben Perkins Jr.-trained colts scheduled to be active this afternoon in stakes competition.Storm Tower, undefeated in three starts, makes his stakes debut in the second division of the Fountain of Youth, and closer to home, Bowie-based Fifty Cent Dollars, runs in the Hessian Stakes at Philadelphia Park.

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- Dance Floor and Pistols And Roses, the 1-2 finishers in the Fountain of Youth Stakes, will switch places in the starting gate for tomorrow's Florida Derby.Dance Floor, which had the rail in the earlier event, drew the 11 hole yesterday, when 12 horses were entered for the $500,000 race. Pistols And Roses, which had the 10 post position in the Fountain of Youth, moved inside to No. 5.Gulfstream Park oddsmaker Chuck Streva still made Dance Floor a strong 7-5 favorite.Streva likened the 3-year-old colt to the older Sea Cadet, who won the Donn Handicap decisively, then reaffirmed that win about a month later with a 7 1/2 -length victory in the Gulfstream Park Handicap.

Oliver's Twist went down to his first defeat at Gulfstream Park on Friday, but his trainer, Billy Boniface, is undeterred in his plans to run the Maryland-bred colt in two weeks in the Grade II Fountain of Youth Stakes."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The owners and trainer of Kentucky Derby long shot Wallenda are trying to buck recent history.A quick look at winners in the past decade shows that every Derby winner, except Alysheba in 1987, had won at least one major prep race.Wallenda hasn't won a single 1993 race.But the Dogwood Stable horse is not alone. At least a third of this year's 20 prospective Derby starters -- Wild Gale, Sea Hero, Tossofthecoin, Truth of it All, Silver of Silver and Ragtime Rebel -- is winless this year.

The star's role of favorite in the 124th Kentucky Derby may be won not only on the racetrack, but also in the paddock. That's where Coronado's Quest, owned by Stuart S. Janney III, must overcome his demons.Watch the chestnut colt today on ESPN before the Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park, and you may learn where Coronado's Quest ranks with other 3-year-olds aiming for the Derby on May 2 at Churchill Downs.On the track, Coronado's Quest may be the top prospect. Racing in the colors of Janney, who lives in Butler, near Reisterstown, the Forty Niner colt has won five of seven starts, including the Cowdin, Nashua and Remsen stakes last fall at Aqueduct.

At least, last winter, there was Looming.Bob Meyerhoff's colt won stakes after stakes during the winter and early spring season at the Maryland tracks, igniting local interest in the Triple Crown, even if the horse eventually wound up racing in the shadow of his more illustrious stablemate, Concern.This year, it's slim pickings as far as the local 3-yearold crop is concerned.In 1994, a total of 354 3-year-olds were nominated to the Triple Crown and 25 of them were principally based in Maryland, representing 21 local trainers.

John Velazquez's run of misfortune began when he broke a rib and his right wrist during a tumble at Aqueduct Racetrack in April. When the 41-year-old jockey returned for the Kentucky Derby, it was not aboard the victorious Orb - the horse he had ridden to victories at the Florida Derby and Fountain of Youth Stakes - but rather on Verrazano, which finished 14th. Velazquez was trying to reverse his hard luck Saturday when he rode Itsmyluckyday in the Preakness Stakes. And he nearly did. After winning two preliminary races Saturday, Velasquez and his horse had a solid showing in the Preakness, finishing second to Oxbow.