Close Hatches, Princess of Sylmar target Personal Ensign

ELMONT, N.Y. – Close Hatches and Princess of Sylmar, separated by a head in Saturday’s Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes at Belmont Park, most likely will meet again in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga on Aug. 22, but how each filly gets to that race remains in question.

The most attractive races on the East Coast in the older filly and mare division between now and the Personal Ensign are the Grade 1, $750,000 Delaware Handicap at 1 1/4 miles at Delaware Park on July 12, the Grade 3, $200,000 Shuvee at 1 1/8 miles at Saratoga, and the Grade 2, $200,000 Molly Pitcher at 1 1/16 miles at Monmouth Park, both on July 27.

Bill Mott, the trainer of Close Hatches, has won the last two Delaware Handicaps with Royal Delta but isn’t sure Close Hatches will be as effective at 1 1/4 miles as she has been up to 1 1/8 miles.

“I’m not saying she can’t do it, but I think that would be stretching it out to the max,” Mott said Sunday. “I suppose it all has to do with the pace scenario.”

Close Hatches, who won her first two starts of the year in front-running fashion, sat third, six lengths off a hot pace established by Classic Point, in the Phipps. She got first run on Princess of Sylmar and a flat Beholder and held off Princess of Sylmar at the wire.

“She’s very versatile. She doesn’t have to be on the lead, but she can be,” Mott said. “The way she ran yesterday, she’s probably just as good if she’s not. I don’t think there’s anything about her that says she has to be on the lead.”

Close Hatches, a Juddmonte Farms-owned daughter of First Defence, is 8 for 11 in her career, with earnings of $2,382,300. She has won four Grade 1 races, including two this year, the Apple Blossom and Phipps.

Garrett O’Rourke, the manager of Juddmonte Farms, said he would leave the decision on where to run next to Mott.

“To set the early-season targets and pull them off the way she’s done, you wouldn’t want to be getting greedy now – no reason to,” O’Rourke said. “Whatever he thinks is best, that’s good for us. It’s all gravy now.”

Todd Pletcher, the trainer of Princess of Sylmar, thought his filly ran “courageous” in defeat. He said his biggest concern about the Delaware Handicap would be running back in four weeks, but he said it’s more appealing than the Shuvee, given that race’s purse and Grade 3 status.

“It’s a matter of seeing if Delaware’s enough time,” Pletcher said. “I don’t think we’ll know that for another couple of weeks.”