HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Dornoch brought a semblance of sanity to an otherwise crazy renewal of the Fountain of Youth Stakes, recording a front-running, 1 3/4-length victory in the Grade 2, $400,000, 1 1/16-mile race, a result that basically qualifies him for the May 4 Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. Le Dom Bro, at 27-1 the longest shot in the field, finished second by a neck over Frankie’s Empire. Real Macho and Dancing Groom completed the order of finish in a race that lost many of its top contenders throughout Saturday. Early Saturday morning, Grade 1 winner Locked and the maiden Victory Avenue were scratched by their connections. Locked, the morning-line second choice, was scratched because trainer Todd Pletcher did not like how his horse galloped Saturday morning at Palm Beach Downs. Victory Avenue, the third choice on the morning-line despite having lost his lone start, was also scratched Saturday morning because his connections felt he hadn’t eaten and was acting dull. Merit was scratched because he had run second in a Friday allowance race at Gulfstream. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports Speak Easy, a maiden winner on debut five weeks ago, was entered in that same allowance race, but scratched out of that to run in the Fountain of Youth. Speak Easy, who was vying for favoritism with Dornoch, got loose in the post parade of the Fountain of Youth, unseated jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., and ran into the rail, suffering lacerations. The issue was not deemed to be too serious. Dornoch, the Grade 2 Remsen winner, was left as the 1-5 favorite. When trainer Danny Gargan saw that Speak Easy had scratched, he ran down the steps from where he was watching the pre-race warm-up and went to the rail to tell jockey Luis Saez to just put Dornoch on the lead. “I ran down and told Luis let’s not play around, I went ahead and told him ‘go,’ “ Gargan said. “I didn’t want to take any chances of anybody getting in his way at that stage.” Dornoch, breaking from post 3, was able to make the lead rather comfortably and had a one-length advantage through fractions of 24.39 seconds for the quarter and 48.14 for the half with Le Dom Bro, under Edwin Gonzalez, chasing him. Le Dom Bro got within a head of Dornoch around the far turn, but Dornoch was able to repel him and an outside bid from Frankie’s Empire to secure the victory. Dornoch, a full-brother to 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage, covered the 1 1/16 miles in 1:43.64 and returned $2.40 as the favorite. Despite the win, Dornoch regressed on the Beyer Speed Figure scale, earning an 88, three points below his Remsen figure. Dornoch is owned by a group that includes West Paces Racing, Randy Hill, Belmar Racing, Two Eight Racing, and Pine Racing Stables. Dornoch earned 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points and now has 60 when combined with the points from winning last December’s Remsen. Saez said he was not worried when Le Dom Bro got close to him. “I know when horses get close to him he’s going to give me another gear so I was not worried,” Saez said. “I was very confident I had a lot of horse. I know he was going to give me another gear.” Gargan said that performance was far from Dornoch’s best race. “He ran fine, he ran as good as he needed to to win today, that’s all we needed,” Gargan said. “If he had a horse around him, he would have kept digging and running better. Next race we’ll have horses all around us.” Gargan said he would consider the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby here on March 30 or the Grade 1, $1 million Blue Grass at Keeneland on April 6 for Dornoch’s next start. Le Dom Bro, coming out of a runner-up finish behind Frankie’s Empire in the Swale Stakes after getting beat 30 1/2 lengths by Dornoch in the Remsen, earned 25 Derby points for his runner-up finish. “He’s a good horse,” trainer Eniel Cordero told Gulfstream publicity. “The more the distance the better for him. I’ll talk to the owner and see what’s next.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.