NEWS
Quality Road impresses Triple Crown poll voters
Posted: Monday, March 02, 2009 5:39 PM
by Ron Parker
The $250,000 Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) on Saturday at Gulfstream Park attracted eight stakes winners, including three graded stakes winners, but it was maiden winner Quality Road who finished 4 ¼ lengths in front at the finish.
The impressive performance rocketed the Elusive Quality colt to fourth place for week four of the THOROUGHBRED TIMES poll of staff members and correspondents.
The Edward P. Evans homebred made only his third start in the one-mile Fountain of Youth for trainer Jimmy Jerkens, but the victory was no surprise to the colt’s connections.
“We’ve thought a lot of him from his first start,” Jerkens said.
While a trip to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) suddenly appears to be a realistic goal, Jerkens, who has never saddled a Kentucky Derby runner, forgot to pay the $600 nomination fee to make Quality Road eligible for the Triple Crown by the January early nomination deadline.
Jerkens said after the Fountain of Youth victory he would pay the late nomination fee of $6,000 by the March 27 deadline.
“It will just cost a little more,” Jerkens said.
While Old Fashioned and Pioneerof the Nile maintained the one-two ranking they have held since the start of the THOROUGHBRED TIMES poll, a dominant six-length victory by The Pamplemousse in the Sham Stakes (G3) at Santa Anita Park on Saturday vaulted the Kafwain colt from tenth to fifth place, only a few votes back of Quality Road.
To view the poll as part of the THOROUGHBRED TIMES Road to the Triple Crown website, click here.
Making their first appearance in the top 20 are Theregoesjojo, who occupies the 11th spot after finishing second to Quality Road in the Fountain of Youth, and Take the Points, who moved into the 19th after finishing second to The Pamplemousse in the Sham.
Dropping out of the top twenty from last week’s poll were Big Drama, Vineyard Haven, and Charitable Man, as well as 2008 champion two-year-old male Midshipman. Previously ranked fifth, Midshipman will miss the Triple Crown races after suffering a soft-tissue injury to his left front leg during training in Dubai.
Ron Parker is a Thoroughbred Times contributing writer
