Danny Gargan was fishing Monday morning, he and fellow horsemen John Kimmel and Scott Everett reeling in some good-sized sailfish in the waters off Jupiter, Fla. This spring, Gargan hopes to go big-game hunting with his 3-year-old Dornoch. The expedition to the Kentucky Derby begins in earnest Saturday when Dornoch makes his highly anticipated seasonal debut in the Grade 3, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park. The Fountain of Youth, at 1 1/16 miles, offers its top five finishers (50-25-15-10-5) qualifying points toward the Derby. Partly due to his inactivity and partly due to the productiveness of the Grade 2 Remsen Stakes that he won last December at Aqueduct, Dornoch’s stock as a Kentucky Derby prospect has risen as the winter has progressed. Dornoch won the Remsen after being headed in the lane by Sierra Leone, coming back on that one at the wire to win by nose. Sierra Leone made a successful 3-year-old debut winning the Risen Star at Fair Grounds. Drum Roll Please, third in the Remsen, won the Jerome in January before being sidelined by injury. Domestic Product, seventh in the Remsen, ran a solid second in the Holy Bull at Gulfstream. Le Dom Bro, ninth in the Remsen, finished second in the Swale Stakes. “I told everybody in May that he’s the best horse I ever trained and nobody argues that now,” Gargan said. “I think he’s going to go on and do some good things.” :: KENTUCKY DERBY 2024: Derby Watch, point standings, prep schedule, news, and more Gargan said the way Dornoch moves is what got him so excited about the colt. “He just has a massive stride,” Gargan said. “He’s impressive to look at too. I hope he turns out as good as I think he is.” Gargan was in a somewhat similar position last year with Dubyuhnell, who had won the Remsen in 2022 but then failed to advance at 3. Gargan said Dornoch “breathes different air” than Dubyuhnell. Dornoch, a son of Good Magic out of the dam Puca, is a full brother to 2023 Kentucky Derby winner Mage. Gargan liked Mage at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in training sale of 2022 but did not have the resources to buy him when he sold for $290,000. Gargan said that Dornoch was his favorite prospect at the 2022 Keeneland September yearling sale, and he ultimately went to $325,000 to get him. At the time, Gargan had a partner, Larry Conley’s West Paces Stable, go in for a third. After Mage finished second in the Florida Derby, Gargan had other interested parties in Dornoch, ultimately selling percentages of the horse to Randy Hill, Vito Cucci’s Belmar Racing, former major league baseball player Jayson Werth’s Two Eight Racing, and Mark Pine’s Pine Racing. Dornoch lost his first two starts, the second one being a runner-up finish in the Sapling Stakes at Monmouth Park where he didn’t have a good trip and then, according to jockey Kendrick Carmouche, didn’t see Noted coming on the outside. :: Access morning workout reports straight from the tracks and get an edge with DRF Clocker Reports Dornoch won his maiden in a 1 1/16-mile maiden race at Keeneland, which led him to the Remsen. The Remsen victory can be looked at in two prisms: one, it has been a productive race. Two, Dornoch took advantage of a surface that favored inside speed to win. “The track was speed biased all day, the rail was good, I agree with all that,” Gargan said. “But I went 46-and-1 and 1:11-and-change going a mile and an eighth with a 2-year-old and kept running. Where were the horses that were laying second, third, and fourth? They all collapsed.” Gargan gave Dornoch three weeks off after the Remsen before putting him back in training at Palm Meadows. Dornoch has only five breezes leading up to this race. Gargan said he is hoping for a good race from Dornoch on Saturday, not his best, when he faces the likes of Locked and maybe Speak Easy. “If he wins that’s awesome, if he runs second that’s awesome,” Gargan said. “I just want him to keep going forward. I didn’t want to do too much too early and gear him up and not have a horse to run the first Saturday in May because I think he’s the type of horse that if he gets in the gate can be competitive.” Big Gotham field, San Felipe smaller The Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham at Aqueduct and the Grade 2, $400,000 San Felipe at Santa Anita, both on Saturday, also offer 105 Derby qualifying points. The Gotham, a one-turn mile, was expected to draw a field of 13 with the fast debut winner Just a Touch trying to jump onto the Derby trail while stretching out to a mile. Just a Touch was one of four entered from the barn of Brad Cox, which includes Jimmy Winkfield Stakes first- and third-place finishers Bergen and Air Cav as well as beaten Withers favorite Lightline. El Grande O, runner-up in the Jerome and Withers, has 15 Derby qualifying points, the most among this group. :: Subscribe to the DRF Post Time Email Newsletter: Get the news you need to play today's races!  Meanwhile, the San Felipe figures to be dominated by Bob Baffert-trained horses – he had eight of the 15 nominees – none of whom are eligible to earn Derby points owing to his ban from this year’s Derby. Those eligible to earn points that were expected to enter included Scatify and McVay the third- and fourth-place finishers behind Baffert’s Nysos and Wine Me Up in the Robert Lewis. ◗ Epic Ride and Blue Eyed George, the one-two finishers from the Leonatus Stakes, head an overflow field of 14 entered in Saturday’s $150,000 John Battaglia Memorial at Turfway Park. The Battaglia offers 42 Derby qualifying points. The field will be limited to 12 starters. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.