Three Rules Fires Florida Bullet

Shade Tree Thoroughbreds, Tom Fitzgerald, and Geoff Roy's multiple stakes winner Three Rules put in his final breeze the morning of Feb. 24 for the $400,000 Xpressbet.com Fountain of Youth (G2) March 4 at Gulfstream Park.

With Gulfstream leading rider Luis Saez aboard, Three Rules was clocked in a swift :58.91 for five furlongs over Gulfstream's main track, the fastest of 15 works at the distance.

Saez will have the mount in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth, replacing Cornelio Velasquez, who was up for the Gone Astray   colt's first seven starts—including a runner-up finish as the favorite to Favorable Outcome in the seven-furlong Swale Stakes (G2) Feb. 4, his 3-year-old debut.

"It was a real good work—excellent. I couldn't have wanted anything better," trainer Jose Pinchin said. "He's doing good. He came out of the last race beautiful and he'll run again next week, God willing."

Three Rules opened his career with five consecutive wins at Gulfstream, four of them in stakes, capped by a sweep of the three-race Florida Sire Stakes series for 2-year-olds. He finished sixth in his juvenile finale, the Sentient Jet Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) Nov. 5 at Santa Anita Park, before making his return in the Swale.

"He seems like a bigger, stronger horse," Pinchin said. "He's doing great."

Also working Friday morning at Gulfstream was Lee Lewis and Mark Grier's Beasley, who went a half-mile in :48.11, fastest of 38 horses at the distance. It was the second breeze for the Shackleford   colt since his gutsy runner-up finish in an optional-claiming allowance Feb. 3 at Gulfstream.

"I was very pleased with it. He worked great and galloped out nice and strong afterward, so we’re very happy," trainer Mark Hennig said. "He can be (a fast work horse), especially if you put him in company. He had a little target to run at today."

Beasley was a nose winner of his Dec. 1 unveiling at Aqueduct Racetrack before arriving in South Florida, where he was second by a length in a seven-furlong optional claiming allowance. He dueled for the lead in his most recent start, contested at 1 1/16 miles, and the Fountain of Youth is the race Hennig is looking at for the bay colt's stakes debut.

"Right now it is," the trainer said. "We want to see how the horse comes out of the work tomorrow and play it by ear, but everything's going well right now," he said. "I was just tickled with him this morning. He's had a great week of training here."