Breeders' Cup: Trainer Bill Mott remains positive after solid workouts by his team
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DEL MAR, Calif. - A beautiful Southern California morning when four of his top horses put in solid workouts in preparation for the upcoming Breeders’ Cup was enough to put Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott in a positive mood. This in spite of a two-month stretch during which his horses have gone 2 for 78 between Aqueduct and Keeneland.
At those two meets, Mott has had 17 second-place finishes, seven in stakes, punctuated by a nose defeat with 3-5 favorite Sterling Silver in Sunday’s Empire Distaff at Aqueduct.
“September and October, I can’t find the winner’s circle, but I’ve been through that before,” Mott said outside his temporary home in Barn DD at Del Mar. “I ran three favorites [Saturday] and nobody hit the board. I’ve got to readjust, they’re nice horses. I’ve had some seconds, I’ve had some horses running good, we just haven’t been connecting.”
Mott found a nice way to break out of his slump on Sunday at Churchill Downs when the maiden 2-year-old Sovereignty won the Street Sense Stakes by five lengths.
Perhaps that was a good sign for the 71-year-old Hall of Fame trainer, who ranks fourth all-time in purse money won and seventh in wins. He has won 15 Breeders' Cup races, only four trainers have won more.
Over the last two years, Mott has won five Breeders' Cup races, including three last year that helped him earn his fourth Eclipse Award as champion trainer.
This year, Mott has four runners in the Breeders’ Cup - Arthur’s Ride (Classic), War Like Goddess (Filly and Mare Turf), Syclla (Filly and Mare Sprint) and Scythian (Juvenile Fillies Turf). None are likely to be favored, but none are out of place.
“I can say that I don’t have anybody I’m running that doesn’t have a chance,” Mott said.
It was a sentiment strengthened after Mott put all four through their final workouts Sunday morning at Del Mar.
Perhaps War Like Goddess, who will be making her fourth straight appearance in a Breeders’ Cup race, was the most impressive. The 7-year-old mare worked a half-mile in 48.52 seconds over Del Mar’s main track. She galloped out five eighths in 1:01.53 and six furlongs in 1:15.02.
“She worked fantastic,” Mott said. “I haven’t seen her work like that since she was out here the last time.”
Neil Poznansky, the exercise rider who was on War Like Goddess, seconded that emotion.
“She worked like that one other time,” Poznansky said. “That was here three years ago.”
Three years ago, War Like Goddess finished third, beaten a half-length, in the Filly and Mare Turf. This will be her fourth try in the Breeders’ Cup. Her owner, George Krikorian, is enjoying War Like Goddess so much that he hasn’t ruled on bringing her back to race at 8.
“I’m keeping all options open,” Krikorian said Sunday.
Earlier in the morning, Arthur’s Ride, the Grade 1 Whitney winner, worked a half-mile in 48.18 seconds over the main track, getting his last quarter in 23.32 seconds and continuing out five furlongs in 1:00.53. Mott had asked Poznansky to make sure he asked for something considering Arthur’s Ride is not typically an enthusiastic workhorse without company.
Arthur’s Ride recorded Beyer Speed Figures of 111 and 110, the latter in the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga, before finishing fifth in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. The combination of two big efforts and getting embroiled in a hot pace battle might have done in Arthur’s Ride in the Gold Cup.
“It might have been a case where we would have been better taking off that horse,” Mott said.
Though Arthur’s Ride has recorded his previous three victories in front-running fashion, Mott said “he can be equally as good” sitting off another horse.
Scylla is an intriguing player in the Filly and Mare Sprint, run at seven furlongs around one turn. Though she won two stakes in Kentucky and was second in the Grade 1 Clement Hirsch at Del Mar, all at two turns, earlier in the year, Mott liked what he saw when he cut her back to one turn in the Grade 1 Ballerina, in which she finished second to Society. For her career, Scylla has three wins and two seconds in races run around one turn.
“I think she might be best at one turn,” Mott said. “Whether that’s seven-eighths or a mile that remains to be seen.”
Scylla worked an easy half-mile in 51.55 seconds. Mott said Scylla had two strong works at Saratoga, so he wasn’t looking for her to do much on Sunday. She will be ridden by Mike Smith in the Filly and Mare Sprint.
Scythian might be the longest shot of Mott’s quartet. She is 2 for 2 on the turf including a victory in the Grade 2 Miss Grillo Stakes. She will be taking on some of the top European-based 2-year-old fillies around, including the Aidan O’Brien-trained Lake Victoria.
“It’s a tall order for sure, but she worked good, she’s got a great disposition,” Mott said.
Considering the lack of recent success, so does her trainer.
“Look, we’ve run 28,000 times, we had periods like that before,” he said.
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