by Jeff Apel

History has taught trainer Barclay Tagg how special Nobiz Like Shobiz could be entering the $350,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes (G2) on Saturday at Gulfstream Park.

“Michael Matz had reason to be confident with Barbaro last year,” Tagg said. “He had one of the most fabulous horses anyone had seen in a long time and he has him in great position for the Triple Crown. I think my horse could be on that same level.”

The Albert the Great colt will try to take another step toward equaling Barbaro’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) victory when he starts in the Fountain of Youth, a 1 1/8-mile race for three-year-olds.

The nine-horse Fountain of Youth field also includes multiple graded stakes winners Scat Daddy and Stormello, Grade 2 winner Adore the Gold, and Grade 3-placed stakes winner Drums of Thunder. by breezing four furlongs in 47.60 on Thursday.

Nobiz Like Shobiz breezed four furlongs in :47.60 on Thursday under regular rider Cornelio Velasquez and recorded the fifth-fastest of 21 horses at the distance.

“He did just what I wanted him to,” Tagg said. “I didn’t want anything faster than 48 [seconds] and I didn’t want anything slower. He did it just right.”

Nobiz Like Shobiz enters off a 1 1/2-length victory over runner-up Drums of Thunder in the one-mile Holy Bull Stakes (G3) on February 3 at the Hallandale Beach, Florida, track. He suffered his lone loss in four career starts when he finished second, three-quarters of a length behind Scat Daddy, in the Champagne Stakes (G1) on October 14 at Belmont Park.

“So far he’s done everything right,” Tagg said. “He’s got an easy mile victory in him. His workouts came out just the way we planned. He’s no longer lugging in. We’ve corrected that.”

Todd Pletcher trains Scat Daddy, who finished third in the Holy Bull in his 2007 debut. The Johannesburg colt also won the 2006 Sanford Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course.

Scat Daddy closed out his two-year-old campaign finishing a well-beaten fourth in the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1).

Trainer Bill Currin and Alvin Eisman own and bred Stormello, the winner of the Hollywood Futurity (G1) in his previous start on December 16. The California-based colt also won last year’s Norfolk Breeders’ Cup Stakes (G2) at Santa Anita Park.

Adore the Gold, a John Murphy homebred trained by Mike Gorham, earned his first graded stakes win in the Swale Stakes (G2) on February 3 at Gulfstream. The Formal Gold colt previously won the ’06 Dover Stakes at Delaware Park and the H. Steward Mitchell Stakes at Laurel Park.

Jeff Apel is a Thoroughbred Times assistant daily news editor

The field, in post-position order, with (sire), jockey, weight, and trainer:

1. Johannesburg Star (Johannesburg), Rajiv Maragh, 116, Collin Maragh;

2. Hal’s My Hope (Halo’s Image), Jose Rivera, 116, Barry Rose;

3. Drums of Thunder (Concerto), Manoel Cruz, 120, Bill Kaplan;

4. Stormello (Stormy Atlantic), Kent Desormeaux, 122, Bill Currin;

5. Nobiz Like Shobiz (Albert the Great), Cornelio Velasquez, 122, Barclay Tagg;

6. Meritocracy (Grand Slam), Rafael Bejarano, 116, Todd Pletcher;

7. Divine Master (Montbrook), Rene Douglas, 116, Edward Plesa Jr.;

8. Scat Daddy (Johannesburg), John Velazquez, 122, Todd Pletcher;

9. Adore the Gold (Formal Gold), Edgar Prado, 120, Mike Gorham.