HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - Trainer Brad Cox didn’t hesitate when asked about his plans for Tappan Street moving forward following his second-place finish in the Grade 3 Holy Bull here on Feb. 1.  He immediately declared his intention to skip the Fountain of Youth and train his lightly raced Kentucky Derby candidate up to the $1 million Florida Derby eight weeks later.  The strategy paid big dividends when Tappan Street rallied from off the pace to a 1 1/4-length victory over the Fountain of Youth winner and 8-5 favorite Sovereignty in Saturday’s nine-furlong Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.  The performance guarantees Tappan Street a berth in the Kentucky Derby field five weeks down the road, at Churchill Downs, on May 3. Tappan Street benefitted from a perfectly orchestrated trip by regular rider Luis Saez, after breaking alertly from post 9 in a race lengthened 53 feet from previous years. That policy was instituted in an effort to mitigate the potential dangers, with such a short run to the first turn, in 1 1/16-mile and 1 1/8-mile races over the main track at Gulfstream Park.    :: Get Gulfstream Park Clocker Reports from Mike Welsch and the Clocker Team. Available every race day. Tappan Street settled about five lengths off the pace, set by Madaket Road and forced by Neoequos, who drifted out and took back off the early leader in the run around the clubhouse turn.  Tappan Street began to advance gradually when encouraged by Saez leaving the backstretch, remaining wide while continuing to gain on the leaders into the stretch. He eventually overtook Neoqueos and Madaket Road coming through the furlong grounds, and quickly drew well clear before withstanding a final surge by Sovereignty at the end. Sovereignty, breaking form the extreme outside in post 10, was deftly angled to the three path on the clubhouse turn by Manny Franco, who was called in to replace regular rider Junior Alvarado after the latter was sidelined by a shoulder injury suffered here six days ago.  Sovereignty settled about three lengths behind Tappan Street in the run down the backstretch, angled widest when sharply roused a quarter-mile from home, continued willingly and was gaining gradually on the winner in the final sixteenth. Neoequos remained in contention for a mile, briefly sticking his head in front a furlong from the wire before weakening, as he had in the Fountain of Youth, to finish third nearly three lengths behind Sovereignty.  Madaket Road was a tiring fourth, followed by Disruptor, who finished a disappointing fifth while never a factor after getting pinched and checked back to last shortly after the start. Tappan Street, who earned 100 Kentucky Derby qualifying points and was awarded a 94 Beyer Speed Figure for his victory, is a son of Into Mischief owned in partnership by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club and Cold Press Racing. He completed the nine furlongs in 1:49.27 seconds over the fast track and paid $6.80 as the second choice in the wagering. “Any time you have a young horse like this and give him eight weeks between starts, there’s always a concern,” said Cox. “But he is a very smart horse, he’s intelligent. I felt he would break very, very well today, the way he had been training. And he did. I think that put him in the race in a great position, and he responded well.” Cox said he obviously had some trepidation about drawing post 9, but gained confidence after watching replays of some of the more recent renewals of the Florida Derby won from the outer part of the starting gate in 2023 and 2024 by Forte and Fierceness. “After watching some of the previous Florida Derbies, I knew it could be done breaking from the outside,” Cox said. “And obviously we had the runup that was added on this year.” Cox said he also gained confidence coming into the race from Saez. “Luis was very high on the horse after he broke his maiden and was very high on him after he won the Holy Bull,” Cox said. “We held off a very good horse today. I felt like the two-month layoff would propel him forward.  You never know if they’re going to respond, and he did.” Trainer Bill Mott said Franco informed him after the race that he felt the ground broke away from Sovereignty on two difference occasions, once at the three-eighths and again at the five sixteenths pole, during the running of the race. “A lot of jocks have complained about that here on this turn, you’ll see a lot of these guys staying way off the fence,” Mott explained. “But he said he kind of lost it and he gathered himself up and he did it again. He ran okay. The winner ran well, it was a good race. This doesn’t have to be his best race. Sometimes you can look at it and say maybe that’s a good thing. Sometimes you don’t want their best race before the big event.” Mike Smith, who rode Makadet Road for the first time for trainer Bob Baffert, said his immediate reaction was that the 1 1/8 miles was a bit too far for him.  “It wasn’t like I went overly fast. I thought we got away really well and put him in a great place to kick on,” Smith said. “Let me tell you something, those two or three horses in front of us are serious, because I was running, man.” - Additional reporting by David Grening :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.