Holy Bull (G3) victor Rocket Can one of three Graded SWs on day for Into Mischief
February 4, 2023
Rocket Can winning the Holy Bull S. (G3) at Gulfstream Park – Lauren King
A few hours after General Jim took the Swale S. (G3), Rocket Can became Into Mischief’s second graded winner on Gulfstream Park’s Saturday card with a determined win in the Holy Bull S. (G3).
Into Mischief’s white-hot streak would continue later at Santa Anita Park, when Newgate rallied to win the Robert B. Lewis S. (G3). The champion sire now has six stakes winners this year as he looks to continue his reign on the General Sire list. Into Mischief now has 62 lifetime graded stakes winners
In the Holy Bull, Rocket Can made the step up into stakes company off a narrow allowance loss on Thanksgiving weekend at Churchill Downs. He drew the outside post in the field of eight on Saturday, forcing him four to five wide around the first turn. Still wide and in the clear on the backstretch, Rocket Can was just two lengths from the front through a half-mile in :48.84.
As the field rounded the turn, Rocket Can, in the three path, moved up and took the lead with a quarter-mile to run. He dug in gamely in the stretch and held off Shadow Dragon to win by three-quarters of a length in 1:44.97 for the 1 1/16-miles on a fast track.
“It was a little worrisome on the first turn–he was four-wide,” said Rocket Can’s trainer Bill Mott. “It’s a short run to the first turn and he had the outside post. He was four-wide in the first turn and then three-wide. The good part about all that is you have a clear trip. You’re running farther than everyone else, but he got a nice clean trip and maybe that’s what he needed today.”
Mott said the March 4 Fountain of Youth (G2) was certainly a possibility for the gray 3-year-old.
Owned by Frank Fletcher Racing Operations, Inc., Rocket Can is now 2-1-0 in five starts and has earned $249,738. Bred by the Woodford Thoroughbreds, Rocket Can is out of Tension, whose dam Tough Tiz’s Sis was a two-time Grade 1 winner.