Departing Continues Whitney Preparations

Multiple graded stakes winner Departing will work Saturday morning as he continues his preparation for the Grade 1, $1.5 million Whitney on August 2.

The Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider homebred fired a bullet five furlongs in 1:00.24 last Saturday on the main track, best of 20 at the distance.

"He's training well," said trainer Al Stall. "He trained well here last year, and he seems to like it. He didn't get to run up here, and he'll get his first chance. His breeze last Saturday was very nice - five-eighths and a great gallop-out. Everything is on schedule."

Departing has a sterling 7-for-11 record with $1,491,340 in earnings. Last year at 3 he scored in the Grade 2 Super Derby and West Virginia Derby and the Grade 3 Illinois Derby.

He opened his 4-year-old campaign with an easy score in an optional claimer and then went straight to the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap on June 14. Against top horses, he loomed boldly in the stretch before flattening out to third behind winner Moonshine Mullin. He was just a neck behind runner-up Will Take Charge, the 2013 Champion Three-Year-Old, who also will be running in the Whitney.

Stall believes the schedule sets up Departing perfectly for a top performance.

"That was his second race in 8 ½ months, going from a one-turn mile allowance race to a mile-and-an-eighth two turns," Stall said. "He was on the lead at the eighth pole [in the Stephen Foster] and just kind of evened off a little bit at the end. He figured to need the race, but I thought to get beat two lengths while he's still working his way up to fitness was a great race for him."

The Whitney has "been the goal since we turned him out last October," Stall said. "We figured his third race back would be the Whitney and so far, so good."