Hancock hoping Departing returns to form in Homecoming
Classic
Coming off an eighth-place finish in the August 2 Whitney at
Saratoga, Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider’s
Departing is seeking a return to top form in Saturday’s $125,000 Homecoming Classic
at Churchill Downs for trainer Al Stall Jr.
Breaking from post position 4 with Robby Albarado in the
saddle, Departing has been made the 2-1 second choice in the Homecoming field of
six.
“He’s been training well,” Claiborne Farm President Walker Hancock stated.
“He put in a good work last weekend and he’s doing fine.”
Hancock was shocked by Departing’s performance in the
Whitney, a race the connections thought would be a huge effort for their
homebred four-year-old.
“It was a disappointment, obviously,” Hancock said. “We
thought we were sitting on a huge race with him. He had been training well. He
loves Saratoga and really we were all just shocked by the result.
“There’s really no excuse. I guess you could say he got bumped pretty hard at
the break and he was really wide in the first turn but things just didn’t go his
way. I don’t know if he just threw in the towel after that or what but
unfortunately he didn’t run a jump in the Whitney.”
Hancock said Departing came out of the race well and is hoping for a
different result in the 1 1/8-mile contest Saturday for the son of War Front.
“He seemed to come out of it alright,” Hancock noted. “He’s been training
like he was all of last year when he had all of his success, so hopefully we can
just draw a line through that last one and move forward.”
Departing won three graded stakes in 2013 coming from
significantly off the pace, but Hancock indicated he will need to run a bit closer to
the leaders to have a shot at winning Saturday.
“Being a short field, you obviously can’t get too far out
of it,” Hancock explained. “It doesn’t look like there’s too much speed in
there. Cigar Street on paper looks like probably the main speed. I know
Departing sometimes tends to come from the clouds, but obviously he won’t be
able to get away with that on Saturday if he’s going to win. I’d say he’ll be
stalking the pace right there with them.”
When asked if the November 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic would be in
consideration for Departing pending a strong finish in the Homecoming Classic,
Hancock responded, “No, but it was before the Whitney. Now we’re not as sure
what to think about him.
“Saturday should tell us a lot about his future but the Classic isn’t really
in consideration at this point. We just want him to return to the horse that we
thought he was before the Whitney.”
Also on Saturday under the Twin Spires, Joseph Allen’s
Battlefront is set to make his U.S. debut off a minor hind-end injury in the
Grade 3, $100,000 Jefferson
Cup for trainer Ben Colebrook. Made the 6-1 fourth choice in the Jefferson Cup field of
eight sophomores, the War Front colt will break from post position 7 under jockey
Robby Albarado.
Colebrook said Battlefront, who recorded a pair of wins
from six starts in France, was sent to his barn earlier this summer after his
injury.
“He had been in France, had an injury over there and came back to the states
and rehabbed here,” the horseman explained. “They sent him to me and this race
came up as a relatively short field so we decided to take a shot with him.”
Last week, the Kentucky-bred worked a half-mile under the Twin Spires in :48
2/5, the third fastest of
53 workers at the distance.
“He’s been training really well,” Colebrook remarked. “He’s been training
over the dirt; but obviously with the European horses the turf should be no
problem. He’ll run on Lasix for the first time so hopefully he’ll run well.”
Colebrook is looking for a big effort from Battlefront on
Saturday and said the horse returned to training in good form after the injury.
“The injury was nothing major,” Colebrook said. “I just think he had some
hind-end issues that they took care of. Since he’s been back and in our care
everything’s been good with him here in the states and we’re looking for a good
effort from him.”
Colebrook was confident in the abilities of Battlefront’s
first American jockey although Albarado has yet to ride the colt.
“Robby hasn’t been on him yet,” Colebrook said. “Usually I don’t have jocks
breeze them in the mornings; I tend to just use my guys. But Robby knows his way
around there and I think he’ll do fine.”
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