Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani's Wathnan Racing purchased the colt Flood Zone following his second start, a 5 1/4-length win on Jan. 4 in a Florida-bred maiden race at Gulfstream. Whether Flood Zone wants to run as far as the 1 1/4 miles of the Kentucky Derby and is a good enough horse to contend in such a race remains to be seen, but Flood Zone earned 50 qualifying points toward the Derby when he captured the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham Stakes by 3 1/4 lengths Saturday at Aqueduct.
Flood Zone, prominent throughout under Reylu Gutierrez after breaking from post 6, paid $37.60 to win, a somewhat stupefying price for a colt who’d put up an 85 Beyer Speed Figure in his maiden win and was making his first start for multiple Eclipse Award-winning trainer Brad Cox. Cox also sent out the New York-bred Sacrosanct, who finished eighth of nine as the 5-2 second choice.
Another New York-bred, Sand Devil, went off as the 7-5 favorite, stumbled slightly leaving the gate, and bumped with the horse outside him, Pagode. But Sand Devil recovered quickly to race on the lead between Flood Zone to his outside and Normandy Coast along the rail. Normandy Coast began backing up at the seven-sixteenths pole, leaving Flood Zone and Sand Devil to fight it out. When Flood Zone switched leads at the three-sixteenths pole, he began edging clear, handing Sand Devil his first defeat in four starts.
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Garamond, making his second start following a maiden sprint win at Tampa Bay Downs, stalked the leaders while racing between horses and finished decently for third, 1 3/4 lengths behind Sand Devil and 1 1/2 ahead of fourth place My Mitole, who bid mildly while wide on the turn and was comfortably clear of fifth-place McAfee.
The second- through fifth-place finishers earned, respectively, 25, 15, 10, and 5 qualifying points through Churchill Downs’ Road to the Kentucky Derby series. Flood Zone’s 50 points will get him into the Derby, which is capped at 20 runners.
"I love being close, and he's a horse that's got natural speed,” Cox said. “Obviously, the post was good, and he fell into the race really nice and finished up great. [He] showed some fight and determination and handled the distance."
Flood Zone, trained for his first two starts by Victor Barboza, finished second in his debut before clearing the maiden ranks going 6 1/2 furlongs. After the purchase, Cox worked the horse three times at his Payson Park base and gave the Gotham mount to Gutierrez, who’d ridden Flood Zone his first two starts.
“Reylu knows him better than we do,” Cox said.
Flood Zone earned a career-high 98 Beyer Speed Figure for the victory.
Racing over a fast track, Flood Zone was timed in 1:39.62, quicker than the 1:40.29 the older horse Bank Frenzy clocked earlier on the card in winning the $150,000 Stymie. Flood Zone is by Frosted out of Curls for Girls, by Curlin.
Al Thani surely paid a pretty penny acquiring a fast, late-winter 3-year-old. Flood Zone, the Gotham hinted, might have been well worth it.
- Additional reporting by David Grening
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