Breeders' Cup Mile: Mott could have three starters

Turf milers? Bill Mott’s got ’em this year, and if things break the right way, Mott could have three starters in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland.

Tourist and Seek Again race Saturday in the Shadwell Turf Mile, a course and distance prep for the BC Mile, and strong showings by either will lead to a trip to the big dance. Waiting in the wings, and training at Saratoga, is Lea, who exits a second-place finish in the Woodbine Mile on Sept. 13 and will come into the BC Mile a relatively fresh horse.

Mott, a Hall of Famer, has won nine Breeders’ Cup races but never the Mile. He’s had starters in the Mile 10 times, his best finishes seconds from Paradise Creek in 1992 and Courageous Cat in 2009. Tourist and Seek Again raced in the 2014 Mile, but both ran below form, Tourist finishing 13th with a rotten trip from a wide draw and Seek Again checking in ninth.

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Tourist was late making his 2015 debut, only getting back to the races Sept. 5, when he scored an authoritative 3 3/4-length win in the $300,000 More Than Ready Mile at Kentucky Downs. Tourist got a winter break, began breezing in May for his first start this year, and was closing in on his seasonal debut at Saratoga when he got sick in July.

“It’s actually pretty amazing he made it back as quickly as he did,” Mott said.

Tourist, a rateable front-runner, brims with upside, a lightly raced 4-year-old with only six grass starts, four of which he has won. Mott took him to Saratoga after the Kentucky Downs comeback run and “put a couple easy works in him,” he said. “He’s worked well. I haven’t leaned on him too hard. Ideally, would I like a couple more weeks? Yes, but we lost some time in the middle of the summer, and the races are scheduled when they’re scheduled.”

Seek Again, a Juddmonte Farms homebred imported from England late in 2013, hasn’t won in three starts this year and is just 1 for 8 since Mott took over his training, but he has run some impressive races. He was a mildly troubled third, beaten a half-length, last out at Saratoga in the Fourstardave, a race he won in 2014. In the 2014 Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at Churchill, Seek Again came within a head of upsetting the mighty Wise Dan.

“He’s a trier, like the Energizer bunny, keeps going and going,” said Mott.

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Lea was a turf horse early in his career but made his mark as a dirt horse after being transferred to Mott’s barn before the 2014 season, winning the Grade 1 Donn in 2014 and finishing second in that race this year before going to Dubai and checking in third in the $10 million World Cup. After a sixth-place finish in the Whitney, however, Mott tried a one-turn turf race, the Woodbine Mile, and Lea came home a solid second, beaten a half-length by English invader Mondialiste, who probably is BC Mile-bound, too.

“I thought he did everything but win that race,” Mott said. “The ground was a little soft, which might not have suited him perfectly.”

Lea will come into the Mile after a five-week break that Mott thinks could work in his favor. He could find plenty of company there within his own stable.

◗ The Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland is the last major North American BC Mile prep and is likely to yield multiple Mile starters. The connections of English shipper Dutch Connection already have said their horse would stay for the BC Mile with a good showing.

◗ There are two races of note in the division overseas this weekend. The Sun Chariot Stakes for fillies and mares on Saturday in England is expected to draw Esoterique, whose connections are considering the BC Mile for their soft-turf-loving mare. The about-seven-furlong Prix de la Foret is part of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe card Sunday at Longchamp and often has produced BC Mile runners. Last year’s BC Mile winner, Karakontie, finished unplaced in the Foret but prepped for a repeat bid in the Mile this year with a third in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp on Sept. 13.

◗ Alert Bay threw his hat into the Mile ring by winning the Grade 2 City of Hope Mile last Sunday at Santa Anita, but that race has not produced strong Mile contenders in the past and seems unlikely to do so this year.