White Abarrio makes dreams come true for trainer and jockey with Florida Derby victory

Eleven days before the Florida Derby, at 3:45 in the morning, trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. reached out of bed, checked his phone and read a text message that caused his heart to sink. The text, which was sent by a barn employee, said that his best horse — White Abarrio — had developed a fever.

“You get that text at 3:45 in the morning and it’s the worst thing you want to see,” Joseph said.

White Abarrio’s Florida Derby plans were suddenly on hold.

But as Joseph said after the now-healthy horse punched his Kentucky Derby ticket Saturday with a 1 1/4-length victory in the $1 million Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park, the best horses have a way of overcoming adversity.

“Average horses can’t overcome those things,” Joseph said. “Just like athletes, the star athletes can overcome things that the average athlete can’t. And that’s what makes this horse the way he is.”

The light gray colt took command of the race at the top of the stretch and held off Charge It to seal a spot in the May 7 Kentucky Derby.

“I’m on cloud nine,” said winning jockey Tyler Gaffalione, who grew up in nearby Davie. “This is all my childhood dreams come true. To win the Florida Derby, growing up down here, it’s just so amazing.”

Joseph was reduced to tears when he talked about his journey to the pinnacle of the sport. He grew up in Barbados and recalled annual vacations to South Florida, timed around the Florida Derby. The first one he remembers was Big Brown’s Florida Derby win in 2008. He was a teenager then.

When he decided to leave Barbados to start training horses in South Florida, he knew he was taking a huge risk. He struggled early on and, at one point, he thought about giving up.

“My dad was against me coming here because in Barbados, I trained better horses,” Joseph said. “And I gave it up to come here and start over. The first five or six years in, we couldn’t get owners. Owners are what make trainers. With the horses owners provide, no trainer is any good. Six years in, I told him, ‘Dad, it’s not going to work out.’ And he’s like, ‘You’ve come too far to go back.’<TH>”

Joseph stuck it out and emerged as one of the track’s top trainers. He will wrap up his first meet training title on Sunday, supplanting perennial winner Todd Pletcher.

Now he has a star horse, to boot.

White Abarrio has had to overcome more than one obstacle. A virus ran through Joseph’s barn in January that caused dozens of horses to become ill. White Abarrio was one of them.

“I had 45, 50 horses get sick,” Joseph said. “I’ve never seen it spread as fast as that.”

The illness caused White Abarrio to miss a couple of important morning workouts heading into the Holy Bull Stakes on Feb. 5. The colt recovered just in time to make the race. But Joseph was concerned the lost time might lower the horse’s fitness level. Still, Joseph convinced the horses to run the horse in the Holy Bull.

“I didn’t think I had him where he needed to be, and I was actually scared that if he runs and gets beat like 10 lengths, it would kind of make me look bad,” Joseph said.

White Abarrio won the race by more than four lengths.

“When he won, it was an eye-opener, that he was better than good,” Joseph said.

Then came another fever, and then Saturday’s Florida Derby.

For Joseph, the victory was a dream come true.

“This is my home track,” he said. “The Florida Derby, it’s like the Kentucky Derby. You want to get this one. It’s been amazing journey.”

In other stakes Saturday on the Gulfstream card:

▪ Heavily favored Kathleen O. proved herself the queen of the Gulfstream meet with an emphatic victory in the $250,000 Gulfstream Park Oaks. The 3-year-old filly remained unbeaten with a win over Goddess of Fire in the Grade II event at 1 1/16 miles. Trained by Shug McGaughey for owner Winngate Stables, Kathleen O. has won all four of her races, three of which have come during the Gulfstream meet. After dropping back to last in the field of seven, Kathleen O. circled past the tiring front-runners at the top of the stretch and drew off convincingly for jockey Javier Castellano.

▪ Gufo saved his best punch for last, turning in a powerful finishing kick to chase down Abaan and win the $200,000 Pan American Stakes (G2) by two lengths. Away from the races since early November when the 5-year-old was 10th in the Breeders’ Cup Turf, Gufo showed no signs of rust, settling toward the back of the pack in the 1 1/2-mile grass stakes before mounting a late charge to blow past Abaan and win in a hand ride under jockey Joel Rosario. The victory improved Gufo’s career mark to eight wins in 15 career races for owner Otter Bend Stables LLC, and he remained unbeaten at Gulfstream, where he is now 4 for 4 lifetime.