Beverly Green's Dearest Mon, a promising 3-year-old son of Maria's Mon, was a late scratch out of Saturday's Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II) because of his outside post.
"The horse is doing great," said trainer Rick Violette Jr. Sunday morning following the final major prep for the Florida Derby (gr. I) at Gulfstream April 2. "I just don't think you can win a mile and an eighth race on this track from post eight on out, and at this point of the season I can't afford to waste a race with him. We'll either run him in an allowance race here shortly or possibly take him up to Tampa for his next start.
"I waited until Lasix time to scratch him because I kept hoping there would be a couple of late scratches on the inside so we could move in a little," said Violette.