March 31, 2026
Even though Commandment and The Puma hit the finish line as one at the end of Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby, trainer Gustavo Delgado and his son Gustavo Jr. were confident their horse, The Puma, had gotten to the wire first. It seemed the majority of those who watched the race, either on track or off, around the country did too.
Unfortunately for the Delgados and the rest of The Puma’s connection’s and backers, the photo-finish camera at Gulfstream Park said otherwise, resulting in one of the most heartbreaking losses in the storied 75-year history of the most significant of all the Kentucky Derby preps.
“As a rule I always play it conservative when it comes to these things, I never celebrate like that when a race is that close,” the younger Delgado said on Sunday. “It seems like that might be a jinx. But that’s how confident we all were that he had won, after watching live and the replays immediately after the race. Javier (Castellano) even came by the barn this morning and told us he still thinks he won.”
But other than the devastation of narrowly missing out on such a lucrative and prestigious prize as the $1 million Florida Derby, the mood was very upbeat in The Puma camp the morning after the race.
“He ate up after the race and looks good this morning,” the younger Delgado, who serves as assistant to his father, confirmed on Sunday. “We couldn’t be happier with his performance, especially coming back in just three weeks off his win in the Tampa Derby. That might have cost us this race, but it was the right thing to do – bringing him back over his home track, especially the way he had worked last week for this race.”
The Puma earned far and away a career-best 100 Beyer Speed Figure for his performance. The son of Essential Quality was bred by Hidden Brook Farm & Brian Kahn and was foaled and raised at the famed Hidden Brook Farm property in Paris, Kentucky. He was then prepped for his racing career at Hidden Brook Florida, before being sold by Hidden Brook at the 2025 OBS April Two-Year-Old in Training sale.
“With those late scratches, there was less pace in the race than we were expecting, but otherwise it worked out just like we thought it would,” Delgado said. “We moved a little sooner because we didn’t want to let Nearly get too far away, especially over this track where you need to be forwardly placed. Everything worked out perfectly, other than we didn’t get the win.”
With The Puma safely in the Kentucky Derby field with 106 qualifying points, the Delgados are looking forward to moving on to Churchill Downs and hoping history will repeat itself on May 2. They sent out Mage to upset the 2023 Derby five weeks after his second-place finish in the Florida Derby.
“Even though [The Puma] won at Tampa, we needed to confirm he belonged at this level and he certainly did that yesterday,” Delgado said. “We now have four races into him and the five weeks between now and the Derby is really going to help him a lot. We’ll stick to the same schedule that worked so well with Mage. Breeze him back here in two weeks and then have his final work at Churchill Downs about a week or so before the race.”
-edited from www.drf.com