Constitution, owned by WinStar Farm and Twin Creeks Racing Stables, cruised home in an allowance optional claiming event by 3 ¼ lengths Saturday at Gulfstream Park. The son of Tapit out the Distorted Humor mare Baffled covered the 1 1/16th mile distance in 1:42.19. He is now two-for-two lifetime after debuting impressively at Gulfstream on January 11th.
Unlike his debut, Constitution broke very well in this, his second start, controlling the pace the entire trip, which was not lost on his trainer Todd Pletcher.
“It actually played out really well,” Pletcher said. “I just wanted to make sure we got to the first turn in a good position. I don’t know why he broke as poorly as he did first time because he’s not a bad gate horse, but he broke cleanly today and Javier (jockey Castellano) was able to get to the position we wanted to be in, and he ran really well from there.”
Though he has just two starts, Pletcher thinks Constitution certainly has the tools to be a Derby horse come the first Saturday in May.
“He’s certainly very talented,” Pletcher said. “The issue that we have with all of these that are only making their second start and didn’t start until this year, historically, I think we’re trying to buck a trend, but I think we have a horse that’s talented enough to keep moving in the right direction.”
No plans are set for Constitution, but he could be considered for the $1 million Florida Derby (G1) at Gulfstream on March 29th.
