In an exhilarating, mature demonstration of pure racing heart, the 1-5 favorite Forte went wide under Irad Ortiz to overtake Cyclone Mischief and Mage in the last sixteenth of a mile to take the Florida Derby on Saturday. Forte could not have delivered a more emphatic claim to be the best colt bound for the Kentucky Derby to come out of the preps. He paid an expected, low $2.60.
Under Ortiz, the colt broke well from the 11th stall in the gate, far to the outside and settled into ninth, behind initial pace setter Fort Bragg, before slowly threading his way through the field up the backstretch. “Going to the quarter pole, he gave me a good feeling,” said the Hall of Fame jockey in characteristic understatement. “And he was ready to roll.” The white-knuckled part of the race was to come.
Ortiz took him five wide in the far turn, increasing the distance that Forte had to cover by, his elated trainer Pletcher estimated after the race, a sixteenth of a mile. But Forte still had a furiously hard-working Mage and the Dale Romans trained Cyclone Mischief out in front poised to take the race, and Forte looked, in the last furlong, as if he would certainly show. Which is when Ortiz found the afterburner switch and Forte breezed by his opponents to take the wire.
"To me what was most impressive were the last hundred yards. He came by me at the eighth pole, he looked beaten,” said Pletcher.
Although Forte's victory was widely awaited, its derring-do, its power and the manner in which the colt delivered it in the last hundred yards were not at all on the agenda, and that more than anything ramped up the racing community’s already-healthy regard for him in the millisecond he crossed the wire a length ahead of Mage. It was the kind of victory that creates fans and one that certainly bodes well for a hotly anticipated May date at Churchill, no matter who comes through with the points in next Saturday’s final preps.
Forte’s time was 1:48.51, and the main track was fast.
Relishing the points his show horse earned and remarking that the Kentucky Derby distance might be better for Cyclone Mischief, the bred-in-the-bone Kentuckian trainer Dale Romans summed it up best. “I think it’s on to Churchill," he said.
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Florida Derby 2023 Results: A Come-From-Behind Triumph For Forte, Mage Places, Cyclone Mischief Shows - Forbes
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