143-1 LONG SHOT STUNS FIELD.Byline: Dave Joseph David Rolston Emmanuel Joseph (born November 15, 1969, Antigua) is a former West Indian cricketer who played in four Tests in 1999. Fort Lauderdale Fort Lauderdale (lô`dərdāl), residential, commercial, and resort city (1990 pop. 149,377), seat of Broward co., SE Fla., on the Atlantic coast; settled around a fort built (c.1837) in the Seminole War, inc. 1911. Sun-Sentinel Call it shocking. Stunning. Impossible? Yeah, that's the word that best described what a crowd of 16,508 witnessed Saturday afternoon at Gulfstream Park. In an unprecedented upset, Built for Pleasure, a 143-1 long shot owned and trained by 78-year-old Thomas Heard, came driving down Gulfstream's stretch to win the $200,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes The Fountain of Youth Stakes is a race for thoroughbred horses run at Gulfstream Park at the beginning of March each year. A Grade II event open to three-year-olds willing to race one and one-eighth miles on the dirt, it offers a purse of $350,000. . The return? A generous $288.20 for every $2 wagered on the colt. The result? Total confusion regarding what was considered to be some of the country's top Kentucky Derby contenders. "This is not a fluke race," said Heard, a native of Refugio, Texas, who saddled his first winner in 1937. But hard to believe. Entering the stretch, it appeared the Grade II event would be a match race between Breeders' Cup Juvenile The Breeders' Cup Juvenile is a Thoroughbred horse race for 2-year-old colts and geldings raced on dirt. It is held annually at a different racetrack in the United States or Canada as part of the Breeders' Cup. winner Unbridled's Song and Michael Tabor's Victory Speech. The two were side by side, ready to duel in the final quarter mile. But like a rocket came Built for Pleasure and jockey Gary Boulanger, who got up by a neck over the favored Unbridled's Song, covering the mile and a sixteenth in 1:43 3/5. Victory Speech was another neck back in third. "This doesn't give you a definite answer (about the Derby prospects)," said trainer D. Wayne Lukas Darrell Wayne Lukas (born September 2, 1935 in Antigo, Wisconsin) is a former educator who became one of the most successful horse trainers in American Thoroughbred horse racing history and a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame inductee. , who saddled Victory Speech and Editor's Note (fifth). "I guess it gives all the trainers a chance to re-evaluate." It certainly does for the connections of the early Kentucky Derby favorite Unbridled's Song, who also disappointed as the heavy favorite Feb. 4 in the Hutcheson Stakes. Purchased as a 2-year-old for $40,000 by Heard, Built for Pleasure broke his maiden at Calder last June and finished second in the Grade II Sapling last August at Monmouth Park. After running a dismal seventh in the Grade I Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga, the colt bucked shins bucked shins a front limb lameness in 2- or 3-year-old Thoroughbred and racing Quarter horses. The metacarpal bone is painful on manual compression and the lameness is thought to be due to microfractures in the bone as a result of compression of the bone during exercise at high and didn't appear again until a second-place finish here in the Grade III Spectacular Bid Stakes. Heard admitted that if Built for Pleasure had not won his previous race - an allowance race for non-winners other than two - he might have not entered in the Fountain of Youth Fountain of Youth legendary fountain of eternal youth. [World Legend: Brewer Dictionary, 432] See : Unattainability . |
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