Florida Derby: Cordero Dreams Big with Le Dom Bro in Curlin Florida Derby (G1)

By David Joseph —-

Ryan Thompson Photo

Cordero Dreams Big with Le Dom Bro in Curlin Florida Derby (G1)

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – Eniel Cordero can’t believe it himself.

Just nine months after coming to the U.S. from his native Puerto Rico, and at 20 years old – yes, 20, – Cordero is preparing to saddle Vicente Stella’s Le Dom Bro in Saturday’s $1 million Curlin Florida Derby (G1) presented by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms at Xalapa at Gulfstream Park.

“I’m surprised I’m here so soon,” said Cordero recently through an interpreter, after saddling Le Dom Bro to a second-place finish behind Dornoch in the Coolmore Fountain of Youth (G2) March 2. “Nine months I’m here. I was thinking [last year] maybe I should go back to Puerto Rico and start there again.”

Cordero will become the youngest trainer to saddle a Florida Derby contender since 24-year-old Jeremy McNeill saddled Fountain of Youth winner Duc d’Sligovil in the 1993 Derby.

Cordero isn’t new to Thoroughbred racing or the U.S. His grandfather Antonio Cordero Vila was a trainer in Puerto Rico and his father a farrier in the U.S. While visiting his father at Gulfstream the past 10 years, Cordero was determined to one day train in the U.S. And with business slow in Puerto Rico, Cordero figured the time was right.

“It’s very complicated to get through in the trainer competition in Puerto Rico…it’s not easy,” Cordero said. “I wasn’t receiving too much trust from the owners in Puerto Rico because I was only 18 when I got my license.”

A winner of seven of 38 starts at Camarero in 2022, Cordero arrived at Gulfstream in 2023 with no clients. “I used my own resources to claim a couple horses who trained here,” he said. “I call myself an autodidact. I learn on my own. I’ve been a hotwalker, a groom. Since I was a kid four, five years old I was watching my grandfather.”

Cordero was just starting at Gulfstream last fall with a small stable when he met Stella, a longtime owner and friend of his family, who turned Le Dom Bro over to Cordero after the son of Mucho Macho Man broke his maiden at Saratoga in August. Following a ninth-place finish in the Remsen (G2) in December, Cordero saddled Le Dom Bro to second-place finishes in the Swale Stakes and Fountain of Youth.

“We faced Dornoch at Aqueduct [in the Remsen] and we finished last, very far back, but the horse wasn’t really fit for the race,” Cordero said. “We were trying. It was an experience. But when he finished second in the Fountain of Youth, it was very emotional for me.”

Having earned 25 Kentucky Derby points with Le Dom Bro’s runner-up finish in the Fountain of Youth, Cordero realizes a good showing in the Florida Derby will likely provide the colt enough points to get into the Kentucky Derby (G1).

“A lot of trainers have been training for years, and they haven’t had an opportunity to go to the Kentucky Derby,” he said. “If this horse breaks well in the Florida Derby, we may accomplish that. I’d be in shock.”

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