HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. - The Florida Derby has produced more winners, 25, than any other Kentucky Derby prep. Trainers Brad Cox and Bill Mott hope that trend continues when their leading Derby candidates Tappan Street and Sovereignty meet again at Churchill Downs on May 3. Tappan Street and Sovereignty finished first and second respectively while clearly best of the 10 3-year-olds who contested the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. Tappan Street opened a comfortable advantage at midstretch before holding safe a final bid from 8-5 favorite Sovereignty to prevail by 1 1/4 lengths under Luis Saez.  It was nearly three lengths farther back to third-place finisher Neoequos, with the rest of the field strung out far behind the leaders. Both Tappan Street and Sovereignty returned to their winter homes at Payson Park and were doing well the morning after the race.  The two are tied for third place on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 110 points apiece.  “He looked fantastic this morning, we’re very pleased with him. Big performance,” Cox said of Tappan Street, who earned a career-best 94 Beyer Speed Figure for his performance. “At the eighth pole I said I think we got it. It was one of those things where I didn’t want to see him hold on and win by a head or a nose, and he was able to win by a length or so. Sovereignty is a very good horse, and if all goes well we’re going to meet him again. I’m excited about where we are five weeks out.”   :: Access the most trusted data and information in horse racing! DRF Past Performances and Picks are available now. Tappan Street will go into the Derby as one of, if not the most, inexperienced members of the field, his victory in the Florida Derby coming in just his third career start. Cox made the decision to bypass one more possible start, in the Fountain of Youth, to give Tappan Street ample time to recover from his second-place finish in the Grade 3 Holy Bull on Feb. 1 and prepare for his final Derby prep on Saturday. “I like what we’ve done with him. He’s getting better with every race, like we thought he would,” Cox said. “He took another step forward yesterday, but I think he’s still got to take one more step forward (in the Derby).  I really do think he can handle the mile and a quarter, and I’m excited about what lies ahead.”    Cox has two other 3-year-olds, Final Gambit and Flood Zone, with enough points to qualify for the Derby, and a couple of others, Passion Rules and Admiral Denis, who could still qualify with big efforts this weekend in the Wood and Blue Grass.   Cox had originally planned on shipping Tappan Street to Churchill Downs either Monday or Tuesday, but has decided to wait another week due to expected wet weather in Kentucky. Mott was naturally discouraged that Sovereignty came out second-best, leaving the Hall of Fame horseman still looking for his first Florida Derby victory. Although he certainly didn’t lose any confidence in his star's ability to win the big one five weeks down the road in Kentucky. “The Florida Derby is a very important race, it’s a Grade 1 and a great race for a horse as a stallion prospect, but what we’re trying to do now is get to the Kentucky Derby,” Mott explained. “He ran a good race, but it didn’t have to be his best race. You don’t want their best race before the big event.”   Mott said he would likely keep Sovereignty at Payson for at least two more weeks and breeze him there once before shipping to Kentucky. “Weather-wise, another two weeks in Kentucky will make a big difference and we’ve got good training conditions down here,” Mott explained. Although Manny Franco rode Sovereignty to his second-place finish in the Florida Derby, Mott confirmed that Junior Alvarado will be back in his regular seat above the son of Into Mischief in the Kentucky Derby. Alvarado was sidelined by a shoulder injury suffered in a riding mishap one week earlier, but is expected to return to the saddle in mid-April, according to Mott. A third member of Saturday’s Florida Derby field, Neoequos, could also possibly qualify for a starting slot in this year’s Kentucky Derby.  His third-place finish on Saturday, in addition to a similar placing four weeks ago behind Sovereignty in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, has him in 18th position on the leaderboard with 40 qualifying points. “We won’t know where we stand until this coming weekend’s prep races are decided, but I think if we were able to get into the Derby, we’d probably go because we have some different owners in this group that have never been,” said Neoequos’ trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. “I thought he got as good a trip as we could have expected, he was just third-best on the day. Distance with him is always the question mark. If we don’t get into the Derby, and if we cut him back, I think he might be able to compete at the Grade 1 level.”      Joseph also reported that White Abarrio came out of his easy victory in Saturday’s Grade 3 Ghostzapper in good order and will now get a little break before beginning serious preparations for his next goal, the Grade 1 Metropolitan Mile at Saratoga on June 7. “He bounced out of this race the same way as the Pegasus, in really good order.  He couldn’t be any better than he is right now,” Joseph said early Sunday. “He’s a horse that does well with spacing between his races. We probably won’t breeze him again for four or five weeks and I’d like to get him up to Saratoga around mid-May, to allow him to have his final two works over the main track there coming into the Met Mile.”  Joseph also said The Queens M G, who was pulled up and vanned off with a knee injury sustained during the running of Saturday’s Gulfstream Park Oaks, is scheduled to have surgery in Ocala on Monday with a good prognosis for her recovery. “Obviously, we’re very disappointed, she is a very gutsy filly who always showed up and tried her best,” Joseph said. “She isn’t a big filly, but she was definitely an overachiever.” The Queens M G ended her career with four wins in nine starts, including victories in the Grade 3 Adirondack at Saratoga at 2 and the Grade 2 Davona Dale here on March 1. - Additional reporting by David Grening       :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.