Derby Watch: Mott, seeking first Derby win, has promising trio

NEW ORLEANS – Bill Mott knows every inch of Churchill Downs. It’s where he rose to prominence in a career that sent him to the Hall of Fame at age 45 as the youngest trainer ever inducted. It’s where, in 1986, he became the track’s winningest trainer, a position he held for 31 years until local hero Dale Romans passed him.

Mott, 65, still makes the pilgrimage to Churchill Downs every year from spring until fall, but it’s with a smaller group than he keeps at his main base in New York, where he heads after wintering in Florida. He’ll arrive at Churchill again soon and has his sights set on the one piece of real estate he’s yet to visit there, the infield winner’s circle used only for the Kentucky Derby.

Much like Richard Mandella, a fellow Hall of Famer who is based in California, Mott has made his mark in the game with older runners, none more so than Cigar, the two-time Horse of the Year who won 16 straight races at one point in his career. Mott has won 10 Breeders’ Cup races, tying him for fifth all time. He’s won the Classic twice, including with Cigar, and the Distaff five times, twice with Royal Delta, a finalist this year for the Hall of Fame.

In 2011, Mott won both the Distaff on Friday with Royal Delta and the Classic on Saturday with Drosselmeyer, the biggest races he’s won at Churchill Downs. He’s hoping to top that this year, and at the moment he’s got a three top prospects for the Derby on May 4.

Country House, Hidden Scroll, and Tacitus give Mott the best lineup he’s had of Derby contenders at this stage of the prep season. He’s had only eight runners in the Derby, beginning with one of his first major horses, Taylor’s Special, back in 1984, when Mott was just 30 years old. With the perspective of more than three decades and as fresh as last year’s troubled trip with Hofburg, Mott said, “I know how difficult it is and how lucky you have to be.”

“We’re in a fortunate position six weeks out,” he said this week in a telephone interview. “We’ve got three possibilities. But that could all change in the next two weeks.”

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One colt is scheduled to be in action on each of the next three Saturdays, beginning with Country House, who should be the second choice here at Fair Grounds in the Louisiana Derby following a runner-up finish behind War of Will in the Risen Star last month in his stakes debut. Mott said both Country House and Tacitus were slow to come around.

“Very much the same, late developing,” Mott said. “They took a while to wake up. They weren’t the kind you were going to run six furlongs at Saratoga. Their works were just average. After Saratoga, we needed to put pressure on them, see what we had. Until then, they’d just do what they had to do. They were just happy to go along.”

Country House – owned by a partnership headed by Maury Shields, the widow of the colt’s breeder, Joseph Shields Jr. – ran poorly on turf in his first start, then was second at 49-1 before beating maidens in his third start.

“I can’t say we saw much until he ran the second time,” Mott said.

Tacitus ran twice at 2, beating maidens in November in his second start, then got a winter break prior to his lone start at 3, a victory March 9 in the Tampa Bay Derby.

“He needed to put on a little more weight, so we gave him time to do that,” Mott said of the vacation.

Tacitus is scheduled to race April 6 in the Wood Memorial at Aqueduct – where he beat maidens – or in the Blue Grass at Keeneland. “First choice is the Wood Memorial,” Mott said.

Hidden Scroll, like Tacitus, is a homebred of Juddmonte Farms, but he did not make it to the races until January owing to a training setback last September at Churchill Downs.

“He was training real well, was ready to run,” Mott said. “Something spooked him. He kicked the wall, hit a metal fuse box with his hock, so we had to give him time.”

The wait was worth it. Hidden Scroll was a dazzling 14-length winner of his debut on the Pegasus World Cup undercard.

“When he came back to Florida, he stepped it right up in his training,” Mott said.

“He wasn’t overtrained when we went over there first time. We thought he was fit enough to run. I guess by the outcome, he was,” he deadpanned.

In his only start since, Hidden Scroll set a hot pace before tiring late to finish fourth in the Fountain of Youth. That race “hasn’t hurt his appetite any,” Mott said.

Hidden Scroll is scheduled to run in the Florida Derby at Gulfstream on March 30.

Three chances, three straight Saturdays to find out if they belong in the Derby.

“Hopefully, we’ll get there and they’ll make a good impression,” Mott said. “If they don’t, we’ll be back. Have to keep pedaling. Won’t give up.”