High Yield Favored in Fountain of Youth

The 3-year-old crop in South Florida is very much a work in progress. Such a slow-developing work that High Yield, a colt on a five-race losing streak, has blown in from California and is the 3-1 morning-line favorite in today’s $200,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale, Fla.

Unable to win with High Yield at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita this winter, trainer Wayne Lukas shipped the $1.05-million yearling to Gulfstream, where the colt was third, behind Anees and Chief Seattle, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile in November.

Lukas, a four-time Kentucky Derby winner, is moving in several directions with his 2000 hopefuls. The filly Surfside will remain at Santa Anita, and Sunday, Lukas will run Exchange Rate in the $125,000 Risen Star Stakes at the New Orleans Fair Grounds.

With Corey Nakatani, who rode High Yield to second-place finishes in his last two starts, riding Greenwood Lake in the Fountain of Youth, Lukas has hired Pat Day to ride High Yield for the first time.

Greenwood Lake, trained by Nick Zito, finished last year with two stakes wins in New York, but after skipping the Breeders’ Cup the colt was a badly beaten sixth as the favorite in the Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream in his 3-year-old debut. In the Fountain of Youth, the first of four Grade I Kentucky Derby preps, Greenwood Lake is 4-1 on the morning line.

Others in the 11-horse field include Hal’s Hope, winner of the Holy Bull at 40-1; Personal First, second in the Holy Bull; Deputy Warlock, winner of the Hawthorne Juvenile; and Un Fino Vino and Polish Miner, recent two-turn allowance winners at Gulfstream.

Horse Racing Notes

The top 2-year-old fillies from last year are running in races called the Davona Dale this weekend, but not at the same track. Chilukki, the division champion, is 4-5 in the Davona Dale at the New Orleans Fair Grounds today; Cash Run, who beat Chilukki in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, runs in Gulfstream’s Davona Dale on Sunday. . . . The most intriguing race this weekend at Santa Anita is today’s third, an allowance for 3-year-olds. The field includes five Triple Crown nominees, two of them--Fusaichi Pegasus and Toqueville--from trainer Neil Drysdale’s barn. Fusaichi Pegasus, who broke his maiden in his second start, cost $4 million as a yearling. Also in the field are Now Voyager and trainer Bob Baffert’s Tribunal.