Elate returns a winner in Delaware Handicap

STANTON, Del. – Passing the grandstand for the first time in the $750,000 Delaware Handicap on Saturday, Elate was between horses and had only one member of the eight-horse lineup narrowly beaten. That changed on the backstretch when jockey Jose Ortiz decided that longshot Proper Discretion was not going quick enough on the lead.

Ortiz asked Elate for some run and she quickly moved up while wide and took command of the 1 1/4-mile race nearing the far turn, approximately 3 1/2 furlongs from the finish. Game over.

Elate left her pursuers in the rear-view mirror. She held a four-length advantage entering the final furlong and crossed the wire 3 1/4 lengths the best.

“I sensed the pace was slow, I thought I should send her, and that’s what I did,” Ortiz said about his move to the lead.

Although Elate covered her final quarter-mile in 26 seconds and the final time of 2:04.83 was not fast, her performance following an eight-month layoff was nonetheless impressive. The early fractions, which played a role in the final clocking, were 24.21 seconds, 49.38, and 1:14.

Elate paid $3.20 as the favorite in the Grade 2 Del Cap. Sneaky Betty finished second at 85-1, a neck before third-place Teresa Z. Fuhriously Kissed checked in fourth.

Mott said he was glad when Ortiz moved early.

“By here the first time, I was afraid they were going a little too slow in front of her,” he said. “I was hoping he was going to be able get her into her stride.”

Elate’s win was Mott’s third in the Del Cap. He won the race in 2012 and 2013 with three-time champion Royal Delta.

Mott worked Elate twice at Payson Park in February but she developed a splint issue that required time and did not work again until May at Saratoga.

He decided to start her back in the Del Cap despite its classic distance.

“We were starting to run out of options,” Mott said. “They had run the races at Kentucky in the spring. And then they ran the Fleur de Lis in the middle of June and we were a month away. So it was either this or the Shuvee at Saratoga.

“We felt like, she’s doing well, let’s go ahead and get her started.”

Mott was happy with her Del Cap performance

“I thought it was good,” Mott said. “She went early, she held on well. She did what she had to do. It looked when she took over, she did it with authority and she finished up.

“Was she getting a little tired at the end? Well, she could have been, she had a right to.”

The goal is to get Elate back to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, a race she finished fourth in last season. The likely races to accomplish that are the Grade 1, $700,000 Personal Ensign, a 1 1/8-mile race on Aug. 25 at Saratoga, and the Grade 1, $400,000 Beldame at the same distance at Belmont Park on Oct. 6.

“Right now, if all goes well, the Personal Ensign would be the target,” Mott said.

Elate, is a big, solid filly by Medaglia d’Oro. Mott says she is now more physically mature than during her 3-year-old season.

“She’s always been a big, strong filly, but she’s filled out, she’s broadened out a little bit,” he said. “She weighs 1,248 pounds, at least she did before the trip down here. She’s nearly as big as Justify. I think he’s 1,250 pounds. She’s a lot of filly.”

Elate was bred and is owned by Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider. Dell Hancock, of Claiborne, and Dilschneider were on hand for the race.

Unbridled Mo, the second wagering choice at 5-2, lacked a response when asked and finished fifth, 1 1/2 lengths ahead of Mopotism.

Nikki My Darling, who was 58-1, stumbled badly at the start, recovered and rushed up to contention, then tired to finish seventh.

Proper Discretion, who set the pace, finished last.