The Fountain Of Youth Stakes (KYD) (Grade 2)- $400.000 Purse
GP- For Three Year Olds
One Mile and One Sixteenth on the Dirt
February 29, 2020

It is not too often that a horse wins a race like this by over two and a half lengths. Therefore, in HRP, we can classify the win by Chai Morning as a rout, and the horse as a strong KYD threat. This will give Aer Stables two very good contenders for the race in a couple months now, and they may not be his only two, either. For now, this is about Chai Morning, who was strong from start to finish, looking very comfortable. The second place horse, Rendezvous is an interesting story in himself, as trainer Waldo can thank the others for scratching out of outside posts while showing them that you can run well from starting there. Back to the winner, though, it is Aer Stables’ first win in the race, and the second for S X Bridgmohan. He rode Noble Warrior to victory in 2011 as well. Congratulations to them! The time of the victory was 1:41.38, the second fastest of races run at this specific distance. Let’s take a look!

(1/4 Mile- :23.27)- The two horses on the outside break well and are able to move over a bit. For the ultimate race leader, Night Mare Racing’s Heretowinthisfight, that push allowed him to get all the way over the rail for the opening turn. He would lead by a length over the eventual race winner, Chai Morning from Aer Stables. That one had an ideal lane, sitting comfortably to the outside of Silent Commander, trained by Serenity Stables. Rendezvous was still in the mix here for Waldo, but did not continue to push forward in the same way that Heretowinthisfight did. In the middle of the field., Charleys Latte (Estero Farms) was next, half a length ahead of Bold Express (Mb Stables), with Cairn Toul (The Sidley Stud) on the rail. Trailing were The Mist (Rampage Stable), Better Back Off (BomBay Stables), Temple Of Gloom (Fractious), Bobbin For Stars (Arindel), and Moment In Time (D J C Racing Stables).

(½ Mile-:46.91)- Moving into the backstretch, the top three start to pull away from the rest of the field, though a new contender would begin to join them. At the front, Heretowinthisfight was not showing any signs of backing down from this pace and Chai Morning was not going to let him get away from him. He would start to make his move to the front of the field by pulling to the outside of the pacesetter while Silent Commander still ran third on the rail. The new challenger became Temple Of Gloom, making an outside move on the backstretch to pull into the fourth position, which for the time seemed like a good move. Interestingly given their finishing spot is already known as I write this, Charleys Latte and Rendezvous each retreated back into the pack and were now about five lengths from the front. That’s not something we often see in one of these races. A little further back, Moment In Time was starting to push forward, but the others were content to hold their ground.

(Top Of Stretch, 1.5F To Go)- Chai Morning did not have to overpower Heretowinthisfight in order to win this field, he just kept the pressure on while running to his outside, and Heretowinthisfight would lose the battle and start to tire, and did so pretty quickly. By the time they hit the top of the stretch, Chai Morning had given the field the slip, still running in full stride with no one coming at him. Silent Commander, who had been near the front the whole time, was lacking stretch response and Temple Of Gloom was dropping back. Moment In Time was advancing, but was not a threat to the leader. Each of Charleys Latte and Rendezvous were starting to come back through the middle of the field, but the ground the conceded earlier was looking very big now. All that was left, then, was to watch Chai Morning run.

(Finish- 1:41.38)- Chai Morning did not let up in the stretch, and wins this race about as easily as you will see a prep race get won. If it weren’t for him, we’d be talking about one of those jumbo finishes for the win, but instead that is for the second place photo. Rendezvous gets it, thanks to having a cleaner lane then did Charleys Latte to get through traffic. Cairn Toul is fourth, mostly because he was able to have a steady run while running on the rail while a lot of movement went on to his outside. Missing out on a piece of the purse are Moment In Time, Silent Commander, Bold Express, The Mist, Heretowinthisfight, Temple Of Gloom, Better Back Off, and Bobbin For Stars.

About The Winner- Chai Morning, trained by Aer Stables and ridden to victory by S X Bridgmohan, is a three year old gelding by Proud Chai, and is out of Kiss You In The Morn. He was bred in the great breeding state of Pennsylvania as a yearling by Tiratzo, and acquired by Aer Stables via a $32.000 claim at BEL in October. Congratulations to the connections! The win is his fourth in seven starts, his second stake win, and first graded win. His career earnings are now $413.200.

Track: Fast
Time: :23¹  :46⁴  1:10²  1:41¹

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 5 – 14 Paid 369.50
$1 Trifecta: 5 – 14 – 7 Paid 1,387.30

Scratched: Into Mischief, Groovy, Moline, Socrates

— NS

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES