Team Departing has no regrets skipping Derby to await
Preakness
Although several other horses that prepped at Fair Grounds ran well in the
Kentucky Derby, trainer Al Stall Jr. has no regrets about having Departing skip
the race to run fresh in the Preakness at Pimlico on May 18.
Graduates of the Risen Star and the Louisiana Derby at Stall’s hometown track
in New Orleans finished in the five spots behind Orb in the Derby, run over a
sloppy track at Churchill Downs.
“With those conditions, I was happy that the horse was sitting back in a nice
comfortable stall instead of in a mile and a quarter war on a tough racetrack,”
Stall said Monday in his office at Churchill Downs. “I didn’t think about that.
We were committed to what we were going to do and we don’t look back.”
Departing, bred and owned by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider, was a
Derby candidate, but was taken off the trail when he finished third in the
Louisiana Derby. Following that race, Stall and the owners changed their
approach and scrapped plans for Kentucky, deciding to focus on the Preakness.
Departing was sent to Hawthorne on April 20 to run in the Illinois Derby and he
cruised to a 3 1/4-length victory from an outside post.
With four wins in five career starts, the War Front gelding heads the list of
new shooters headed to Pimlico for the 138th Preakness. Stall said that the
Illinois Derby route was good for Departing.
“The timing was perfect,” Stall said. “He’s not that big of a horse. The race
was a prep for the Preakness. That’s what Hawthorne designed it as and we’re
going to follow it that way.”
Although Departing finished a competitive third in the Louisiana Derby behind
Revolutionary and Mylute — who were third and fifth, respectively, in the
Kentucky Derby — his connections decided to change course.
“The Louisiana Derby was only his fourth race,” Stall said. “He ran well, but
we just thought that he was lacking in seasoning. He might have gotten in a
little bit of trouble and it looked like the holes were moving a little bit
faster than he was.”
Stall said Departing showed talent, but that he won his first three races so
easily that he really needed more experience before stepping onto the big stage
of the Triple Crown. The Louisiana Derby clearly picked him up quite a bit and
he showed a lot of seasoning and a little guts in the Illinois Derby. It’s
apples and oranges. The way he trains every day. He’s more into it. He just has
more life to him. That last little piece of seasoning he got was the Louisiana
Derby.”
Stall plans to gallop Departing at Churchill Down the rest of the week and is
planning to give him a breeze over the weekend before shipping to Maryland on
May 15. The veteran trainer was impressed with the Shug McGaughey-trained Orb’s
performance in the Derby.
“He was the best horse that day,” Stall said. “He seems to be a horse going
in the right direction. He’s got all the pedigree in the world, all the
connections. He’s strictly the horse to beat. I have no idea whether we can beat
him or not. We’re happy with our horse and are going to take a chance.”
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