BY BROCK SHERIDAN
Florida-bred stakes-winner Prevent led at every point of call with Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez keeping him at a controlled pace through before fighting off favorite Horsepower in the stretch to win the $100,000 Carousel Club overnight handicap at Gulfstream Park Saturday. Assigned 120 pounds, three less than co-high-weights Jokester and Florida-bred Classic Mo Town, the Carlos-David-trained Prevent was the best of a dozen 4-year-olds and older going a mile-and-70-yards on the synthetic course–his sixth consecutive win at the distance.
Prevent lead Horsepower by a length through quarter-mile splits of :24.79 and :48.76. Horsepower put a neck in front coming out of the second turn after six-furlongs in 1:11.98 but Prevent fought back on the inside in the run for home to win by a neck in 1:39.56. Horsepower was two-and-a-quarter lengths faster than Florida-bred Private Thoughts in third. Ciao Chuck, Jokester, Classic Mo Town, He’s Not Joking, Paros, Army Officer, Sky’s Not Falling, Seige of Boston and Unclecharliesgift completed the order of finish. Bail Us Out was scratched.
Prevent paid $21.80 to win and earned $60,000 for Brian Cohen’s BC Racing, increasing his career bankroll to $469,177.
“Six in-a-row at that distance. That’s about as good as it gets,” Cohen said. “It was the right opening quarter for him, it wasn’t too stong and he’ll fight. He has shown in the past that he’ll fight and that was a big one. It was nice to win one on Pegasus day.”
Prevent won three of nine starts in 2025 including the $75,000 Soldier’s Dancer Stakes in July, the $70,000 Mambo Meister overnight handicap in September and the $100,000 Sabal Palm overnight handicap on November 29, all at a mile-and-70-yards on the Gulfstream all-weather course. In one start since the Sabal Palm, Prevent was sixth after setting the early fractions in the $100,000 St. Augustine overnight handicap won by Private Thoughts over a mile-and-a-sixteenth on Gulfstream synthetic on Dec 27.
Bred in Florida by Katia Perez Ozuna, the 5-year-old Prevent is by Pleasant Acres Stallions’ resident Neolithic out of Bossy Gal, by Pioneerof the Nile. His lifetime ledger now reflects eight wins, five seconds and a third from 28 starts. He has won seven of 15 starts on the Gulfstream all-weather course.
Cohen purchased Prevent for $15,000 out of the Las Palmas consignment at the 2022 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Winter Mixed Sale.
Return to the January 24 issue of Wire to Wire
