Trainer Bill Mott waited until Sunday morning for Frank Fletcher Racing Operations' Rocket Can to put in his final breeze for the Kentucky Derby (G1) next Saturday. And the colt's move during the cool, breezy training session with regular exercise rider Guelser Cardona aboard, had his Hall of Fame trainer beaming.
The Into Mischief colt finished a five-furlong move in :59.80, inside of workmate Mr. McGregor. The splits were :12.80, :24.40, :36, and out six furlongs in 1:13.
“I thought it went very well,” said Mott. “That's racehorse time for this track. He had a workmate out there, both riders did a good job, and it worked out like we had hoped it would. I thought Rocket Can finished well, and galloped out well. It was a very nice work.”
With the colt primed for the 1 1/4-mile Derby, now Rocket Can's connections, along with those of the other 19 on the points leaderboard, await the post position draw Monday afternoon.
“To ensure a win, you've got to have a pretty good trip,” Mott said. “It's such a competitive race, that the trip means a lot. Sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you don't, in such a big field.”
Rocket Can worked in blinkers and he'll be wearing them again in the Derby.
“Visually, for me, they appear to be helping,” Mott said. “We had worked him before in blinkers and we had thought that they didn't make an extreme amount of difference. But if they help just a little bit, that's what you need.”
Before the post position draw, Mott doesn't plan too much for Rocket Can after Sunday's breeze.
“He'll have an easy day tomorrow, then we'll get him back on a medium exercise program until Derby Day,” Mott said of the colt, who won the Holy Bull (G3), finished second in the Fountain of Youth (G2), and fourth in the Arkansas Derby (G1). “We just hope that he stays healthy, and in one piece, until Saturday.”
The Derby will answer one important question — which 3-year-olds can handle the distance.
“The one thing we all have to prove is if we can get 10 furlongs,” Mott said. “That's always the question in the Derby, there's not that many prep races at that mile-and-a-quarter distance. When they turn for home in the Derby, that really sorts them out.
“We hope this horse has the stamina to get the 10 furlongs. We think he has it, he has a pedigree that indicates he should get the distance. You never know if they can do it, until they do it.”
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