Lake Avenue jumps to head of Mott's talented 2-year-old class

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – When Lake Avenue rolled to a four-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $200,000 Demoiselle Stakes, it was the seventh victory with a 2-year-old at the Aqueduct meet for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.

While Mott still has to decipher just how good some of those 2-year-olds are, he knows he has a legitimate Kentucky Oaks contender in Lake Avenue, who backed up her 12 1/4-length maiden score earlier this meet with a front-running victory in the Demoiselle.

“I guess this is what we needed to see yesterday to confirm what we were hoping for,” Mott said Sunday morning.

Mott said he watched Lake Avenue cruising on the lead with her ears up through slow fractions under Junior Alvarado. He was anxious to see how she would polish off the race.

“She’s certainly relaxed enough to get the mile and an eighth, now is she going to do it?” Mott said. “I’ve had horses that looked like that and they get to the eighth pole and all of a sudden they surrender. To see her go on – they ran to her little bit going to the quarter pole and it looked like she found another gear – that was certainly gratifying.”

Lake Avenue, a Godolphin Racing homebred daughter of Grade 1 winners Tapit and Seventh Street, was assigned an 84 Beyer Speed Figure. Mott said he didn’t anticipate Lake Avenue making her 3-year-old debut until March.

Mott’s other 2-year-old winners included Antoinette, who won the off-the-turf Tepin Stakes for fillies on Thursday, and Moon Over Miami, a son of Malibu Moon who won a one-mile race by five lengths on Saturday. Lake Avenue, Antoinette, and Moon Over Miami will all head to Florida and join Lost Ticket, a 2-year-old filly who won here on turf on Nov. 22.

Secret Rules and Hemlock, a pair of colts who won sprint maiden races at this meet, will stay in New York for their next starts, Mott said.

Ironically, Mott said his best 2-year-old, Forza Di Oro, ran the worst race of the meet, finishing next-to-last in Saturday’s Grade 2 Remsen.

“I’ve yet to figure that one out, which we’re trying,” Mott said.