{"id":208561,"date":"2026-03-27T16:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/208561\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T16:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T16:56:10","slug":"commandment-chief-wallabee-meet-again-in-florida-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/208561\/","title":{"rendered":"Commandment, Chief Wallabee Meet Again in Florida Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven GI Kentucky Derby winners in the last 20 years\u2013including last year’s winner and Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief)\u2013have used the GI Curlin<\/a> Florida Derby as a launching pad to success on the first Saturday in May.<\/p>\n

Could we see another one emerge from Saturday’s loaded renewal at Gulfstream Park?<\/p>\n

Chief Wallabee (Constitution<\/a>) will look to punch his ticket to the big dance following a too-good-to-lose second to Commandment (Into Mischief) in a heart-stopping renewal of the GII Coolmore Fountain of Youth S. at Gulfstream Park Feb. 28.<\/p>\n


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The Michael and Katherine Ball homebred was making just his second career start and first try around two turns that day after producing a ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ performance on debut going seven furlongs Jan. 10. He is the 2-1 program favorite.<\/p>\n

His sire Constitution<\/a> won the 2014 Curlin<\/a> Florida Derby and is also responsible for the race’s 2020 winner Tiz the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis horse has only had two races total,\u201d said Hall of Famer Bill Mott, who saddled Sovereignty to a runner-up finish in last year’s Curlin<\/a> Florida Derby. \u201cSo, I think it’s a big ask. And I realize that. It’s a huge ask. I think he’s very talented, and he’s a nice horse. He’d have to overcome history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wathnan Racing’s Commandment was also making his first attempt around two turns in the Coolmore Fountain of Youth, his third straight victory. He previously romped in Gulfstream’s Mucho Macho Man S. going a one-turn mile Jan. 3. Flavien Prat replaces jockey Irad Ortiz, Jr., who will instead ride Renegade (Into Mischief) in Saturday’s GI Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.<\/p>\n

Commandment’s all-conquering sire Into Mischief has produced a pair of Curlin<\/a> Florida Derby winners\u2013Tappan Street in 2025 and Audible<\/a> in 2018. Commandment’s broodmare sire Orb brought home the roses after a popular win in the 2013 Curlin<\/a> Florida Derby.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, he passed his first two-turn test with flying colors,\u201d trainer Brad Cox said. \u201cI guess the question is, new pilot, but I feel like we’re in good hands. We’ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearly (Not This Time<\/a>) also enters riding a three-race winning streak. The Centennial Farms colorbearer was a visually impressive 5 3\/4-length winner while making his two-turn debut in the GIII Holy Bull S. Jan. 31. Hall of Fame trainer Todd Pletcher seeks a record-extending ninth Curlin<\/a> Florida Derby victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis races have been super,\u201d Pletcher said. \u201cAs expected, this will be the most difficult race he’s been in, but at the same time, he’s handled everything at Gulfstream the way we hoped. He handled the stretch out and is certainly training like you’d like to see one coming into a race like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The expected field of eight\u2013longshot Redland Rebels (Uncle Chuck) will scratch in favor of the Arkansas Derby\u2013also includes The Puma (Essential Quality<\/a>), a good-looking come-from-behind winner of the GIII ESMARK Tampa Bay Derby Mar. 7.<\/p>\n

Good for 100-50-25-15-10 qualifying points on the Road to the Kentucky Derby, the Curlin<\/a> Florida Derby will close out a stacked 14-race program with 10 stakes, five graded, worth $2.675 million.<\/p>\n

She Be Smooth (Lexitonian), a jaw-dropping winner of the local GII Davona Dale S. Feb. 28, will meet ‘TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard’ Prom Queen (Quality Road<\/a>) in the GII Gulfstream Park Oaks on the undercard. The Gulfstream Oaks offers a total of 200 qualifying points (100-50-25-15-10) for the GI Kentucky Oaks.<\/p>\n

The card also includes the GIII Ghostzapper S., GIII Orchid S. and GIII Pan American S.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven GI Kentucky Derby winners in the last 20 years\u2013including last year’s winner and Horse of the Year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[94945,45955,94946,95484,4033,95485,28,30,29,43813,45957,45959,20104,95486,86131,22083],"class_list":["post-208561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-bill-mott","tag-brad-cox","tag-chief-wallabee","tag-commandment","tag-constitution","tag-curlin-florida-derby","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gulfstream-park","tag-into-mischief","tag-kentucky-derby","tag-nearly","tag-orb","tag-road-to-the-kentucky-derby","tag-todd-pletcher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}