Mott unsure Pegasus World Cup distance will suit Rocket Can

Trainer Bill Mott’s primary concern about Rocket Can, as it relates to a potential start in the $3 million Pegasus World Cup Invitational, is the colt’s ability to succeed at 1 1/8 miles. It is the primary reason Mott was noncommittal to the Pegasus following Rocket Can’s 1 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3 Harlan’s Holiday Stakes at Gulfstream Park.

Conversely, Rocket Can’s affinity for Gulfstream’s main track could turn out to be the primary reason Rocket Can ultimately winds up in the Pegasus on Jan. 25. In addition to his victory in the Harlan’s Holiday, Rocket Can, as a 3-year-old in 2023, won the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes, also at 1 1/16 miles.

“We’ll look and see how tough the race is coming up,” Mott said Sunday. “He hasn’t been a great nine-furlong horse. Maybe at Gulfstream that would change the complexion of it.”

:: Play Gulfstream Park with confidence! DRF Past Performances, Picks, and Clocker Reports available now.

The Pegasus is expected to be topped by Locked, the Cigar Mile winner; and White Abarrio, the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner who is using this Saturday’s Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Stakes as his final tune-up for the Pegasus.

Rocket Can earned a career-best 99 Beyer Speed Figure for the Harlan’s Holiday, his first win since a second-level allowance race going one mile at Oaklawn Park in March. Though Rocket Can hadn’t won in the interim, Mott had been pleased with some of Rocket Can’s one-mile races in New York, as well as a fourth in an allowance on Nov. 9 at Churchill. Prior to the Harlan’s Holiday, Rocket Can finished ninth in the Cherokee Mile on Dec. 1 at Churchill, a race for which Mott didn’t have much of an excuse.

“He had a great race in Louisville then ran a stinker,” Mott said. “There was nothing wrong with him. I wheeled him back and he got jostled at the start and it was just one of those races.”

Should Mott elect to bypass the Pegasus he would have stakes options out of town such as the Grade 3, $250,000 Mineshaft Stakes on Feb. 15 at Fair Grounds or the Grade 3, $500,000 Razorback on Feb. 22 at Oaklawn Park. Both races are run at 1 1/16 miles.

Meanwhile, Mott said that Scotland, who beat Rocket Can in the aforementioned Cherokee Mile, came out of that race “jammed up” and likely won’t be seen again before spring.

:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.