Burnham Square Heads to Fountain of Youth

[Wandering Eyes]

Whitham Thoroughbreds' Burnham Square (Liam's Map), winner of Saturday's GIII Holy Bull Stakes, exited the Triple Crown prep 'bright and alert' and could return in Gulfstream's GII Fountain of Youth Stakes in four weeks.

According to trainer Ian Wilkes Sunday, Burnham Square “came out fine and jogged good this morning” at Palm Meadows, Gulfstream's satellite training facility in Palm Beach County. The gelding earned 20 GI Kentucky Derby qualifying points for his 1 3/4-length triumph.

Second in Gulfstream's series of dirt races for 3-year-olds on the road to the $1-million GI Florida Derby Mar. 29 after the one-mile Mucho Macho Man Stakes Jan. 3, the Holy Bull is followed on the stakes schedule by the GII Fountain of Youth Mar. 1, also run at 1 1/16 miles.

“The logical spot probably is the Fountain of Youth,” Wilkes said for Burnham Square, bred and owned by Janis Whitham with her son and racing manager, Clay. “I'll talk to Clay and Mrs. Whitham and make sure. It's four weeks away. We'll see how he does and how he bounces out of this. He looked bright and alert this morning, but he ran hard. Let's see how he comes back and trains.”

He added, “He overcame a lot of adversity in the race, so that was good,” Wilkes said. “He just keeps getting better, and that's what you want. You've got to get better because the water gets deeper. You've got to keep improving. To where he might maximize out at, I don't know yet. But the further they go the better he gets. The distance is what he likes.”

Burnham Square is 2-0 lifetime at Gulfstream, having graduated with a nine-length maiden special weight score going 1 1/16 miles Dec. 28. Both wins have also come since the addition of blinkers and jockey Edgard Zayas.

“He wouldn't run in the race. He'd run away from horses. He wouldn't run into the dirt. Jocks were riding him at the half-mile pole and he was going nowhere. He just needed blinkers. Then he'd run home, get beat a half-length for all of it and then be four lengths in front after the wire.”

Burnham Square ran second by a half-length at odds of 30-1 while running for a $150,000 claiming tag in debut last fall at Keeneland sprinting six furlongs. He stretched out to 1 1/16 miles and stepped up to maiden special weight company for his next start, beaten less than a length while running third.

“He's a plain ol' horse. We just let him come along,” Wilkes said. “When we worked him, he worked good. But did we like him off the bat? No. We didn't know what we had. We just let him come along and he started working good. I ran him for [$150,000] first time out. He ran awfully good and surprised us, and just got better and better from there.”

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