24 Feb. USA. Fountain of Youth S. G2. Gulfstream Park. 9f. Dirt. 350.000 $
1.- COOL COAL MAN (K.Desormeaux)
2.- ELYSIUM FIELDS (E.Coa)
3.- COURT VISION (G.Gomez)


A full half-hour before his top Derby prospect, War Pass, made his successful 2008 debut, Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito showed the depth of his barn, as another one of his talented 3-year-olds, Cool Coal Man, took over at the top of the stretch and then held off a stubborn Elysium Fields by a half-length to take the $350,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II) at Gulfstream Park on Sunday.

The field of 12 in the Fountain of Youth was loaded with highly-regarded Kentucky Derby (gr. I) contenders, but many of them, including betting favorite Monba, never challenged in the 1 1/8-mile event.

Cool Coal Man, who like War Pass is owned by Robert LaPenta, won for the fourth time in his last five starts, and captured his first graded stakes under Kent Desormeaux. The bay colt entered off a one-length allowance victory Jan. 26, also on the Gulfstream dirt. But prior to that he was a well-beaten seventh in his lone stakes effort, the Nov. 24 Kentucky Jockey Club (gr. II), in which another Zito colt, Anak Nakal prevailed.

This effort proved that son of Mineshaft is for real, even depsite a relatively slow time of 1:51.85.

“He couldn’t have gotten a better trip," Zito said. "I had confidence going in with the (one) post that Kent would get a good position with him. He’s run two great races here. I can’t say where or what race (Cool Coal Man) will run in (next), possibly the Florida Derby (gr. I, Mar. 29). He’s not a big horse. He’d need to have a good 30 days from now. We’ll see.”

Court Vision, going off as the 4-1 second choice, rallied willingly from last to get up for third, but was 5 3/4 lengths behind Elysium Fields. Z Humor, coming off just an eight-day layoff for trainer Bill Mott, was fourth.

In a race void of any significant pace, Golden Spikes broke from post two and sprinted to an early lead. Under handling from Javier Castellano, Golden Spikes posted a soft :25.78 quarter, and continued uncontested on the lead through a :49.27 half-mile.

Make the Point, from post 11, stalked through the backstretch, with Elysium Fields and Cool Coal Man also staying near the front. Kentucky Bear saved ground on the rail in fifth, while Court Vision was last, more than 15 lengths behind.

Make the Point, with John Velazquez aboard, made the front by the time they ran six furlongs (1:13.19), while Golden Spikes began to retreat. Cool Coal Man was 2 ½ lengths off the pace by then, but angling three-wide, he began to eat up ground, and drew even with the leader by the five-sixteenths pole.

At the top of the stretch Cool Coal Man passed Make the Point and Elysium Fields, then began to extend his lead. He had a nearly two-length advantage on Elysium Fields at the sixteenth-pole and seemed poised for victory. But with urging from Eibar Coa, Elysium Fields, who broke his maiden just last month, eased from off the rail and was making up ground in the final yards.

Cool Man Man had just enough to hold off the determined El Prado colt.