Hollywood Park: Emollient to make turf debut in American Oaks

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – The last time that Emollient left trainer Bill Mott’s spring-summer base in New York, she did not have a successful road journey.

Starting as the 4-5 favorite in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes at Pimlico on May 17, Emollient essentially lost all chance a few strides from the gate.

“She stumbled badly at the start, to the point that she burnt the hide off the front of her ankle,” Mott said on Friday. “She recovered from that, but I don’t think she was comfortable.”

Emollient, a filly by Empire Maker, did not start in June. She travels to California for the first time this week to start in Saturday’s $350,000 American Oaks at Betfair Hollywood Park.

Emollient, owned by Juddmonte Farms, is best known for winning the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes by nine lengths at Keeneland in April. The American Oaks will be Emollient’s first start on turf. She has won 3 of 7 starts and $446,900.

The American Oaks will not have a large field. Other contenders include the first four finishers of the Grade 2 Honeymoon Handicap on June 8 – Sarach, Scarlet Strike, Macha, and Becky Lou.

The American Oaks, run at 1 1/4 miles on turf for 3-year-old fillies, is the final Grade 1 race of the spring-summer meeting, which ends next Sunday, July 14. The track will run a six-week autumn meeting in November and December, and then be closed permanently for future development.

Emollient can give Mott his 12th career stakes win at Hollywood Park. Mott’s list of accomplishments here includes such notable wins as Theatrical in the 1987 Breeders’ Cup Turf, Cigar in the 1995 Hollywood Gold Cup, Ajina in the 1997 BC Distaff (now known as the Ladies’ Classic), and the 2011 Shoemaker Mile with Courageous Cat.

Mott said Hollywood Park will be missed.

“Maybe this will be the last one I ever run,” he said of Emollient. “It will be unusual not to have it, to say the least.”