Rock Fall Looks to Step Up in Vanderbilt

Stonestreet Stables' Rock Fall will face the grade I question for the first time Aug. 1 at Saratoga Race Course, when the streaking Todd Pletcher trainee takes on a field of six other accomplished runners in the $300,000 Alfred G. Vanderbilt Handicap (gr. I).

A winner of five straight races by a combined 26 1/4 lengths since breaking his maiden last May—all of those victories earned at the Vanderbilt's six-furlong distance—Rock Fall comes off a 3 3/4-length score in the June 5 True North Stakes (gr. II) at Belmont Park, his first stakes start. He will make his Saratoga debut while stepping up to the highest level against rivals that have combined to win 15 graded stakes and more than $5 million in purse earnings.

"He's coming off a powerful win in the True North and has been training well. We're looking forward to seeing him step up to a grade I and seeing if he can handle it," Pletcher said. "I don't know that he can run much better than he did in the True North. It was a pretty impressive performance and all the figures suggest that it was really a top-caliber race. We're hoping for more of the same."

Rock Fall was training in Saratoga last summer, but minor injuries kept him from racing there. He won two of three starts as a 3-year-old, both at Belmont against older horses.

"Up here last year, he had a little bit of bruising on the bottom of his cannon bones and we had to give him some time off. He's come back very well from it," Pletcher said. "We had a sense that he might be a top-quality sprinter. The way he broke his maiden and won the one-other-than, we felt like we were on to graded stakes at that time until we had a little setback. I'm not surprised he's developed into a top-quality sprinter."

Regular rider Javier Castellano has the mount aboard the 4-year-old son of Speightstown  , who leaves post 3 under 121 pounds.

In off the layup is Alex and JoAnn Lieblong's The Big Beast, unraced since a fourth in the April 4 Carter Handicap (gr. I) at Aqueduct Racetrack. He was scratched from the July 4 Belmont Sprint Championship Stakes (gr. III) with a pulse in his left front foot, but has returned to training in good order for this start.

The 4-year-old Yes It's True   runner is 2-for-2 at the Spa, having taken the 2014 Ketel One King's Bishop (gr. I) in his stakes debut off a 6 1/4-length allowance score there, before heading to the sidelines because of a small ankle chip. The Big Beast has also won three of four starts at six furlongs for trainer Tony Dutrow, only missing at that distance in his first start, when he finished third. 

"I would rather go a little longer, but I'm not going to offer any excuses. I don't think six (furlongs) is his best distance," Dutrow said. "We think that the Beast is about as good as we could hope him to be. We're really, really happy with him."

In his first work since leaving Fair Hill Training Center in his native Maryland, The Big Beast breezed five furlongs in 1:00 1/5 July 25 over Saratoga's main track. He will make his third start of the season after winning an Oaklawn Park allowance March 1 off the bench and running fourth in the Carter.

"We've seen him mature. He's still having fun, he still enjoys himself, he still has his ways, but he's a more mature horse as you would expect from 3 to 4," Dutrow said. "There's lots of good stuff about him going into this race. He's doing fantastic in every way and he loves Saratoga. He's going to face horses that he's never faced before."

The Big Beast has Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez in the irons from post 6. Velazquez will ride for the first time as part of a 117-pound assignment, as Castellano, who had ridden in four of The Big Beast's six starts, opted to ride Rock Fall.

Highweight in the group is David Jacobson and Southern Equine Stable's Salutos Amigos, who comes off a June 28 win in the Mr. Prospector Stakes going six furlongs on a sloppy track. That start was his first since returning from an off-the-board finish in the March 28 Dubai Golden Shaheen (UAE-I). The 5-year-old Salute the Sarge gelding will be making his 30th lifetime outing in the Vanderbilt. He has won five of his last six starts, all of them in stakes, including the Toboggan (gr. III) and Tom Fool (gr. III) over the winter at Aqueduct, but has never won at Saratoga. Cornelio Velasquez will ride the 122-pound highweight from post 2.

Also of interest is Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider's homebred Departing, a graded stakes winner on turf and dirt who cuts back to a sprint for the first time since winning his debut at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots in December of 2012. He has won all three of his subsequent starts as short as a mile, including the June 27 Firecracker (gr. IIT) on the grass at Churchill Downs last time out.

"We've wanted to sprint him for a while and haven't had a chance to just because he's run pretty well," trainer Al Stall said. "We tried him on the grass and he did OK. He won a few dollars, but we didn't think his race on the grass in Kentucky would fit with the best they have around here. We're going to try and see if he can be an explosive come-from-behind sprinter. He's only been around one turn twice in his life and won both times. It may work, it may not work, but the horse is doing very well and now might be the time to try it."

Departing has made one start at Saratoga, finishing off the board in the Whitney (gr. I) last summer. As a 3-year-old he won the Virginia Derby (gr. II) and Super Derby (gr. II), along with the Illinois Derby (gr. III).

"He's great. He's always trained well here," Stall said. "What happened in the Whitney last year, we still don't know, but hopefully it's not the surface out there. I guess we'll find out. If it happens twice, we'll know what not to do."

Departing will carry 117 pounds and jockey Joel Rosario from post 1.

Rounding out the field are Up Hill Stable's multiple grade III winner Clearly Now, winless in four 2015 starts; PJG Stable's Favorite Tale, coming into the Vanderbilt off a front-running 4 1/4-length win in the July 5 Smile Sprint (gr. II) at Gulfstream Park; and Marylou Whitney's Viva Majorca, who on June 27 came from off the pace to win his first stakes, the Kelly's Landing at Churchill Downs.