INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Stormello will duck no one. The California-based Stormello will ship to Gulfstream Park for his 3-year-old debut March 3 in the Grade 2, $350,000 Fountain of Youth, the same race targeted by current Kentucky Derby favorite Nobiz Like Shobiz.

Stormello has not raced since winning the Grade 1 Hollywood Futurity on Dec. 16, but owner-trainer Bill Currin said the 3-for-7 colt is up the challenge.

“I can’t hold him to the ground anymore, and I don’t want to be accused of ducking anything,” Currin said Tuesday at Hollywood Park. “I want to take on the best.”

Last year, Stormello emerged as the best 2-year-old in California for Currin and co-owner Al Eisman. He won his second start July 29, placed in successive Grade 2 sprints at Del Mar, and won the 1 1/16-mile, Grade 2 Norfolk Stakes during the fall Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita. After a distant fifth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, Stormello won the Hollywood Futurity by a neck. Freshened since, Stormello has trained strongly in recent weeks.

Currin cited several reasons for shipping Stormello out of town rather than run in the Grade 2, $200,000 Robert Lewis Stakes the same day at Santa Anita.

“My first inclination was to take the low road, but the Fountain of Youth looks good in the stallion book, the purse is higher, and it is a mile and an eighth,” Currin said. “I want that added distance; we have to creep up to a mile and a quarter.”

Kent Desormeaux will ride Stormello in the Fountain of Youth, after which the colt will be considered for yet another ambitious spot - the $2 million UAE Derby on March 31 in Dubai.

“It’s something that’s on the plate,” Currin said, adding, “he’d have to win the [Fountain of Youth] laughingly.”

Currin ran Outta Here in the UAE and Kentucky derbies in 2003. He finished fourth and seventh, respectively.

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