The Holy Bull, the first graded-stakes stop on the road to the $1 million Curlin Florida Derby (G1), headlined Saturday’s 12-race program that offered five graded-stakes opportunities for 3-year-olds.

The 1 1/16-mile Holy Bull is a designated Kentucky Derby (G1) prep with the first four finishers eligible for 20 qualifying points on an 8-6-4-2 scale.

Rocket Can broke from the far-outside post position in a field of eight and was caught four-wide around the first turn. Alvarado kept the gray colt in the clear on the outside as Mr. Bob showed the way along the backstretch while posting fractions of 23.92 and 48.84 seconds for the first half mile.

Rocket Can was asked for run leaving the backstretch and made a three-wide move to the lead at the top of the stretch and continued on to withstand a stretch challenge from Shadow Dragon, another Mott trainee ridden by Jose Ortiz.

“The horse broke sharp, and I hustled out of there just to make sure I’m forwardly placed and he was there for me. I couldn’t really save much ground the first part because everybody had the same idea to get out of there running. I ended up being a little bit wide, but he was very kind. He was nice and relaxed the whole way around, so I was very pleased with what I had under me,” Alvarado said. “By the three-eighths pole I started picking it up little by little knowing that it’s the first wire. I had a great feeling going all the way around.”

[Watch the Holy Bull Stakes]

Rocket Can ran 1 1/16-miles in 1:44.97 to win his stakes debut. Peachtree Stable’s Shadow Dragon, a 30-1 longshot, finished 2 ¼ lengths clear of West Coast Cowboy, a 58-1 longshot ridden by Edgard Zayas.

Rocket Can finished off the board in a pair of sprints at Saratoga before stretching out around to turns to graduate at Churchill Downs by two lengths Oct. 30. The Kentucky-bred colt finished his juvenile campaign with a close second-place finish in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance at Churchill Downs Nov. 26.

“It was a little worrisome on the first turn. He was four-wide. 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,” Mott said. “You’re running further than everyone else, but he got a nice clean trip and maybe that’s what he needed today.”

Saturday’s effort strengthened Mott’s confidence in Rocket Can’s capability to run at longer distances.

“It seems like he can keep going. Hopefully, another sixteenth is good and another three-sixteenths is even better,” said Mott. “Time will tell that.”

Shadow Dragon’s strong performance very much pleased his trainer.

“It was a great race for him. I’m very pleased with his effort for a horse that’s run only twice,” said Mott, whose New York-bred son of Army Mule defeated state-breds in a six-furlong debut at Aqueduct Sept. 29 before finishing off-the-board in the Sleepy Hollow Stakes. “He moved way forward today.”

The Holy Bull will be followed on the road to the Florida Derby by the Fountain of Youth (G2) March. 4.
“I think we’d want to do that with one of them, for sure,” Mott said.

Cyclone Mischief, the 6-5 favorite ridden by Tyler Gaffalione, raced in mid-pack before fading the seventh.

NOTES In perhaps the strangest alleged Triple Crown prep in recent memory, Newgate won the Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita. The Lewis nominally offers points to the top five finishers. However, horses trained by Bob Baffert are ineligible for points, since Baffert is still serving the suspension Churchill Downs, Inc. meted out to him following Medina Spirit’s betamethasone positive in the ’21 Kentucky Derby. All four runners in the Lewis were trained by Baffert…