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$400,000 COOLMORE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH (G2) QUOTES
3/3/2024
Winning Time: 1:43.64
Winning Margins: 1 ¾, neck, 5 ¾
Winning Payoff: $2.40
Fractions: :24.39, :48.14, 1:11.43, 1:36.95
Order of finish: Dornoch, Le Dom Bro, Frankie’s Empire, Real Macho, Dancing Groom.
Scratches: Locked, Merit, Speak Easy, Victory Avenue.
Winning co-owner R.A. Hill (Dornoch): “I wasn’t that worried to be honest. We got lucky with the scratches, but I was pretty confident all along. I think this horse is the real deal. He won today, Luis stood up about halfway down the stretch. We get the two scratches, which of course was lucky, but you got to run against who’s in the game. We’ll probably run in the Florida Derby or the Blue Grass. It’s up to Danny.”
Winning trainer Danny Gargan (Dornoch): “We didn’t want to be on the lead but when [Speak Easy] scratched, he gets out there and he kind of plays around. You can see him with his ears kind of goofing off. I told Luis, ‘Just go ahead and go.’ We had no choice. We really wanted to stalk today, it just didn’t work out that way. He won fine enough. Surely it won’t be his fastest race. We didn’t expect to win today. It just kind of played out that way. I don’t think he ran very hard. He was just kind of playing around out there.”
“We could run in the Florida Derby or the Blue Grass. Wwe’re lcky enough now where we can pick our spot. Sixty points usually gets you in, so now we’re on cruise control. We’ll figure out where we want to go next and try to enjoy this for a minute.”
“Before, we were going to follow [Speak Easy] around there and have a target, because that’s how we’ve been training. At that stage, you’ve got to go and if those horses get by him late, it’s OK. He’s got to get real tired. Galloping out, he really drew off. I don’t think anybody was going to get around him. He didn’t have to run too hard, which I’m happy about. We’re blessed to be here. It’s just one of those things you have to be happy to be part of.”
Winning jockey Luis Saez (Dornoch): “We just break from there running. We know the inside horse has a little speed and we’d like to follow him but Dornoch is a super horse and I didn’t want to get him in trouble so I just let him run, and he kept going. I know when horses get close to him he’s going to give me another gear, so I was not worried.”
“The plan was the follow Speak Easy. We know Speak Easy is a good horse but have a pretty good horse. The horse can run all day.”
“I was very confident. I had a lot of horse. I know he was going to give me another gear, he always does. He’s just a good horse. I’m pretty happy.”
“He has matured and grown. He’s a big horse. I know when he broke from there he was going to show some speed but I was thinking I was going to follow horses but I couldn’t take a hold of him anymore. I just let him run.”
“This horse. has something very special. When he got pressure, he took off again.”
Owner Vincente Stella (Le Dom Bro, 2nd): “I am very proud of the horse. The last race he got in trouble and it was a disaster. This race he had an opportunity to run, and he ran a big race.”
Trainer Eniel Cordero (Le Dom Bro, 2nd): “I’m really happy. The horse ran good. I talked to Edwin and I said to get some position and then go. He’s a good horse. The more distance the better for him. I’ll talk to the owner and see what’s next. We have a good horse.”
Jockey Edwin Gonzalez (Le Dom Bro, 2nd): “I broke running and I took my position right away. I didn’t want to go head-to-head with the favorite. I had a really perfect trip. Every time I asked him he gave it to me. He had some fight in him. He’s doing really good.”