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ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott has the enviable task of trying to keep separated a bevy of talented horses in the handicap division.
Not only must he conceive a plan for Stephen Foster winner Ron the Greek and Fleur de Lis winner Royal Delta, Mott has to figure out how best to manage graded stakes winners To Honor and Serve and Flat Out.
To Honor and Serve and Flat Out will be nominated to the Grade 2, $350,000 Suburban on July 7, but Mott indicated Thursday that To Honor and Serve is the more likely of the two to run.
“I’d say it’s starting to look that way,” Mott said Thursday from Saratoga.
Mott said his mid-term target for To Honor and Serve is the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga on Aug. 4. He must decide whether running in the Suburban four weeks earlier will have him better prepared for that race as opposed to waiting. To Honor and Serve has not run since finishing third in the Met Mile on May 28.
“He’s only had two races this year,” Mott said. “It’s not like he’s run too much.”
To Honor and Serve worked four furlongs in 48.33 seconds last weekend at Belmont and will breeze again this weekend.
Meanwhile, Flat Out – last year’s Suburban winner – has had five breezes since being transferred to Mott, though he has not worked since June 7. Mott said he plans to work Flat Out again this Monday at Saratoga, but indicated it would be “a tight squeeze” to make the Suburban.
Meanwhile, Mott said the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Breeders’ Cup Classic are the goals for Ron the Greek, with one start likely before then. The Whitney on Aug. 4 or the Woodward on Sept. 1 are the most likely possibilities.
Mott said the Grade 1, $600,000 Personal Ensign at Saratoga on Aug. 26 is his major goal for Royal Delta, but he will look at the $750,000 Delaware Handicap on July 21 as a possible next start.
Mott has not ruled out running Royal Delta against the boys again. In March, she finished ninth in the Dubai World Cup.
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When her new 9wner laid out $8.5 million for her, and then sent her off to run in the richest race in the world against the boys on synthetics off in Dubaii, he signaled his intertions on which card Royal Delta can be found on come Breeder's Cup in Santa Anita. That $5 million dollar race will be her swan song before she heads to the breeders shed that winter. For all Motts talk about the Ladies Classic being her BC goal, the odds are strong we see her taking on the males, not her own sex.
Keith L.
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Best Bets
GHOSTLY APPEAL has been on the sidelines for more than nine months. She'll be hard to deny on the drop from $12,500 N2L to $5,000 N2L if she's ready to roll in her return. WINTER ROCKET made up ground late, but still finished in the rear-half of the pack when she was overmatched against Louisiana-bred $12,500 N2L's in her return from a freshening. She'll be a factor in the exotics on the class drop to open $5,000 N2L. SHE'S BONAFIDE didn't show as much early speed as usual, then rallied to challenge for the lead.
