Holy Bull Stakes (G3) winner Burnham Square will continue on Gulfstream Park's Road to the Kentucky Derby by running in the March 1 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2), trainer Ian Wilkes said on the BloodHorse Monday podcast released Feb. 10.
BloodHorse Monday is a new, hour-long podcast hosted by BloodHorse in partnership with Louisville, Ky.-based radio host Louie Rabaut. The show streams live every Monday at 2 p.m. ET on BloodHorse's YouTube page and can be accessed afterward on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, ESPN Louisville+ and espnlouisville.com. The show also airs in Louisville on ESPN 680/105.7, as well as other stations throughout the country.
Wilkes will use both the Fountain of Youth and March 29 Florida Derby (G1) as "building blocks" to the get the Liam's Map gelding to the May 3 Kentucky Derby (G1) at Churchill Downs, exercising his method of developing horses that he learned from his mentor, two-time Kentucky Derby-winning trainer Carl Nafzger.
"I think this horse needs a couple more races, you don't want him to make mistakes in the Kentucky Derby," Wilkes said. "That's the goal. I can't be afraid to get beat, that's the key in each race. Yeah, I want to win every race, but I can't be afraid. I need to build this horse to my ultimate goal. That's where I'll use each race to get to where I want to go."
Preparations will begin soon with Wilkes expecting Burnham Square to return to the worktab in about a week. Wilkes said the gelding has exited his victory better than he entered it, but that the training plan could differ from the Holy Bull.
"I don't need to do a lot with him because I was a little hard on him coming into that last race. I was coming off a maiden going into a stakes," Wilkes said. "I wanted him a little bit tighter, I wanted to keep moving forward. Now I want to watch him and let him float along and come into the next race, judge each work on how he's doing coming into it. ... It's not like I have to drill him to be where I want to be, I just got the right kind of works."
One of the key areas of focus will be schooling in the Gulfstream paddock during the afternoons, hopefully correcting some of the nerves Burnham Square showed in the pre-race before the Holy Bull.
Wilkes was joined for the 27-minute interview by Clay Whitham, who manages the racing and breeding operations alongside his mother, Janis. Wilkes and Whitham discussed the gelding's development from debuting in a $150,000 maiden claiming race, the family line which has been in the Whitham broodmare band for several generations, how their 21-year partnership came to be, and much more.
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