Youth Stakes

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- Bill Mott broke a record for trainers at Gulfstream Park yesterday when he saddled his 32nd winner of the meeting, Dahlia's Dreamer.But the horse he really wanted to see win was Lahint, who ran 10th in the Florida Derby two days ago just when people were touting him as a major candidate on the road to the Kentucky Derby."He had his shot," Mott said, making no excuses for Lahint. "It was the first time he faced horses who could really run. Maybe he got a little discouraged."

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.

HALLANDALE, Fla. -- The morning of the Fountain of Youth Stakes, someone stopped Jeremy McNeill and asked him if he wanted a job as a groom.The tall, muscular Jamaican trainer, whose family-owned horse Duc d'Sligovil ended up winning a division of the Grade II stakes, is getting used to such comments.The 23-year-old bodybuilder doesn't fit the stereotypical mold of the older, establishment-oriented, possibly out-of-shape, white male trainer."But it doesn't bother me. I just try to introduce myself first to people so they don't look foolish," he said.

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.

Don't be surprised if the Pimlico Special shares the same card next spring with the Preakness.We will announce the schedule when it all comes together."

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.

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.

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."

LAUREL -- Wait For the Lady will try to duplicate a recent wire-to-wire victory in today's $60,000 Squan Song Handicap at Laurel Race Course.George "Chick" Borden, serving in place of leading trainer King Leatherbury, will oversee the saddling of both Wait For the Lady and Thirty Eight Go Go, the 1-3 finishers in their most recent race, the Gala Lil Handicap.Wait For the Lady, making her stakes debut, won the Gala Lil in a 16-1 upset.The 12-race holiday program includes the simulcast of the Stymie Handicap from Aqueduct in New York.