LOUISVILLE, Ky. – When not wearing his old-school protective helmet while atop his stable pony, trainer Bill Mott can usually be seen sporting a New York Yankees baseball cap. On a recent morning on the Churchill Downs backstretch, Mott had a grayish cap emblazoned with a double-bordered green and white diamond, the stable symbol of his son Riley. “I’m very proud of him,” said the elder Mott, whose own stable symbol is a singular bordered green and white diamond. Saturday, Mott will be both proud papa and, for about two minutes, worthy adversary to his son as both will have runners in Kentucky Derby 152 at Churchill Downs. The proudest person of all? Tina Mott, Bill’s wife and Riley’s mother. “Bubbling with excitement,” Tina Mott said. “Doubly proud. It’s a really unbelievable moment that we can have two people in our family competing against each other in the Derby.” The last time a father and son squared off in the Kentucky Derby was 1964 when father Robert “Red” Wingfield’s Dandy K. finished eighth, two positions ahead of son Robert E. Wingfield’s Wil Rad. :: DRF Kentucky Derby Package: Save on Past Performances, Clocker Reports, Betting Strategies, and more. Two-time Kentucky Derby winner Bill Mott, 72, will send out Chief Wallabee on Saturday, while Riley Mott, 34, has two in the race – Virginia Derby winner Incredibolt and Wood Memorial winner Albus. “I think it’s great,” said Bill Mott, a Hall of Famer and five-time Eclipse Award winner. “I’m as excited for him as I am for myself. However, I want to do everything I can to win the race. I’m excited that he’s in there and he’s in there with an opportunity. It’s just terrific.” Mott was 30 in 1984 when he started his first horse in the Kentucky Derby, Taylor’s Special, who finished 13th. Over the next 24 years, Mott appeared in only four Derbies with six horses. Mott typically didn’t get the type of horses that were traditional classic dirt colts. “When Hold Me Back won the [2009] Spiral Stakes to get into the Derby it was the coolest moment of my childhood,” said Riley Mott, talking about the horse who finished 12th in the Derby. “Because as a child we were never in contention.” It was only six years ago when Bill and Riley stood side by side on the podium in the Churchill Downs infield after 65-1 shot Country House was promoted from second to first in the Kentucky Derby following the disqualification of Maximum Security. It was just last year when Riley Mott, in his third full year of training but without a horse in the Derby, stood next to his dad after Sovereignty splashed his way to a dominant Kentucky Derby victory, giving the elder Mott his second win in the race. Bill Mott’s two Derby victories are memorialized on plaques on the wall outside Barn 19 on the Churchill backside, a barn Riley Mott knows all too well. “Grew up in this barn right here just helping out with Derby,” Mott said. “Definitely something every young person in this game aspires to be involved with.” Riley Mott said his father never encouraged him nor discouraged him from becoming a horse trainer. He just knew it was something he was going to do from an early age. And he learned simply by watching his father, who as of Wednesday ranks eighth all-time in wins (5,615) and fourth all-time in purse-money won ($373.7 million). “He just leads by example, not only as a horse trainer, but a lot of what I do is based on what he does – how you treat people as a human, how you are as a father, how you are as man,” Riley Mott said. “He’s been a great example and role model to follow.” Riley worked as an assistant to his father for about eight or nine years. His initial plan was to take over the stable when his father retired. Tina Mott told her son that his father isn’t the retiring type. :: Get DRF Kentucky Oaks & Derby Betting Strategies by Marcus Hersh and David Aragona. Full analysis and wager recommendations! “Uh-uh, not happening honey, I wouldn’t wait for your father to retire,” Tina Mott remembers telling her son. So Riley Mott made a plan to go out on his own, which he did in November 2022. He won with the third horse he started, Unifying. That filly also gave Riley his first stakes win, taking the Leslie’s Lady Stakes at Ellis Park. Riley Mott has been concentrating on making every year better than the previous one. In the three full calendar years he has been training, Mott’s numbers have improved in wins, stakes wins, and purse-money won. Mott said having a Derby horse wasn’t necessarily on his list – at least not at this stage of his career. “It hasn’t really hit me yet. I’m just trying to do my best, to kind of stay focused and not distracted,” Mott said. “They’re fun distractions. You want to be in the mix and have people interested in what you’re doing. I think it’s important to really stay focused. It’ll probably hit me a couple of days before, particularly on the walkover.” Riley Mott is confident his two horses will show themselves worthy of being in the Derby. Incredibolt won the Grade 3 Street Sense Stakes – the same race his father’s Sovereignty won in 2024 – to cap a 2-for-3 juvenile campaign. After an inexplicable dud in the Grade 3 Holy Bull at Gulfstream Park in January, Incredibolt made amends with a strong late rally to win the Virginia Derby. “Just the way he did it in Virginia really passed the eye test,” Mott said. “He showed tactical speed, went up the inside, went [24 seconds] for the last quarter-mile, and did it with his ears pricked. I’m really intrigued by his pedigree. He’s out of an Awesome Again mare by a son of Medaglia d’Oro.” Albus didn’t truly burst on the scene until this winter, when he won a maiden race at Tampa Bay Downs followed by a rallying victory in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial. “He’s a workmanlike-type of horse. He can grind it out, but he also is able to overcome adversity,” Mott said. “He had a lot of traffic in his last race, took a lot of kickback. I know he’s by Yaupon, but [Yaupon’s] a son of Uncle Mo and [Albus] is out of a Bernardini mare and looks like Bernardini. Maybe I’m biased, but I think he fits the profile of a prospect for the Derby.” Bill Mott is trying to become the first trainer since Bob Baffert in 1997-98 to win the Kentucky Derby in consecutive years. In Chief Wallabee, Mott has a son of Constitution who won first out, finished second to Commandment in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, and was third to him in the Grade 1 Florida Derby. Mott is adding blinkers to Chief Wallabee’s equipment with the hopes of focusing him enough to finish the last part of the race. :: Get DRF Kentucky Oaks & Derby Clocker Reports by Mike Welsch and the DRF Clocker Team “Chief Wallabee is short on experience and he’s probably a little shy on having the foundation that Sovereignty had coming in, but he’s very talented,” Mott said. “Sometimes, the talent can overcome the shortage of experience. I don’t make any predictions, but I think he’s capable of running a big race.” Incredibolt will break from post 11, Chief Wallabee is right next door in post 12. “Saddling a Derby horse next to my dad will be a sentimental moment,” Riley Mott said. “Might have to take a selfie with him in the paddock.” Both Riley and Bill Mott said they expect Tina Mott to be rooting for Riley in the Derby. “They’re right,” Tina said. “I wasn’t going to make it public, but yes, mom has to root for her son above all else.” :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.