THE Grade 2 Holy Bull Stakes winner and 4/5 favourite Upstart may have been first past the post in the $400,000 Grade 2 Besilu Stables Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park last Saturday, but it was the lightly-raced Itsaknockout who was awarded the win.

Upstart, with Jose Ortiz in the irons, closed steadily in the eight and a half furlong Derby prep to take control from 7/2 second choice Frosted in the final furlong.

But he bore out under steady left-handed urging from Ortiz against Starlight Racing’s Itsaknockout in deep stretch, causing not only a stewards’ inquiry, but a jockey’s objection by Itsaknockout’s rider, Luis Saez.

Itsaknockout, a three-year-old son of Lemon Drop Kid, won his first two races and stepped into stakes company in just his third start. He now has a 3-for-3 record at Gulfstream and will target the Grade 1 Besilu Stables Florida Derby on March 28th.

“That was a tough decision,” Saez said. “I did think (Upstart) would get taken down, because he really bothered me. When we came into the stretch, I felt like my horse wanted to run, so I thought we’d win the race. But the other horse came out and bothered me. I couldn’t ride my horse.”

“(Frosted) came out on me and I bumped (Itsaknockout) after that,” commented Upstart’s rider, Ortiz. “I bumped him just a little, but I don’t think enough to take me down.”

The stewards thought otherwise. “I feel bad for the connections of the other horse,” commented winning trainer Todd Pletcher. “He crossed the finish line first, but definitely we got impeded a bit and Luis (Saez) had to stop riding for a couple strides. I don’t know how it would eventually affect the outcome.”

The Fountain of Youth is worth 50 points to the winner for a spot in the starting gate of the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on 2nd, with 20, 10, and 5 going to the second-to-fourth-place finishers. Itsaknockout jumped to the second spot on the leaderboard with his tally.

“The thing I’m most proud of is for this horse to run this well in his third lifetime start, first time around two turns and first time in a (stakes),” Pletcher said. “It was a very, very good effort. He was in between horses in a situation he hasn’t been in before, so it was a big effort.”

Itsaknockout was a $350,000 purchase by agent Frank Brothers from Irishman Gerry Dilger’s Dromoland Farm, at the 2013 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale.