Mott duo tops in Baruch - unless it's wet

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Trainer Bill Mott is always dangerous in the Bernard Baruch Handicap. Friday, when the Grade 2, $150,000 Bernard Baruch is run for the 45th time, Mott will be double tough.

Mott, who has won four of the last five runnings of this race, will send out defending Baruch winner Del Mar Show and the multiple stakes winner Patrol in the nine-furlong race, scheduled for the turf. Of course, if it continues to rain like it has this week, the race could be moved to the main track.

Mott said he would not run either horse if the race is transferred to dirt, and he has some concerns if the turf course is too soft. Jerry Bailey, a six-time winner of this race, rides Del Mar Show from the rail. Mike Luzzi rides Patrol from post 3. Both horses carry high weight of 118 pounds.

"Del Mar Show, he's okay if it's a little soft. If it's real soft I don't think it's very good for him,' Mott said Wednesday morning. "[The course] could take a little more water; if it stopped raining now it would probably be in perfect shape.'

Del Mar Show is coming off a third-place finish in the King Edward Breeders' Cup Handicap - a one turn, nine-furlong event - at Woodbine.

"I think he got beat by two awfully nice horses,' said Mott, referring to Perfect Soul and Strut the Stage. "I don't think it was his best race, however I don't know that a one-turn race is going to be his best race.'

The Bernard Baruch is run around two turns.

A year ago, Patrol looked like a miler. But Patrol has learned to relax and showed a good closing kick winning the nine-furlong Dallas Turf Cup last out.

"That was an ongoing project to try to get him to settle down,' Mott said.

Tap the Admiral and Trademark loom the biggest threat to Mott's duo. Tap the Admiral, a 5-year-old son of Pleasant Tap, has matured into a solid racehorse. He is coming off a victory in the Firecracker Handicap at Churchill Downs, and has handled soft going in the past.

"He really blossomed in the spring of his 4-year-old year,' trainer Del Carroll said. "He's always had that desire to be a racehorse; it helped to have a little bit more body to work with.'

Trademark, who raced competitively with the talented Ipe Tombe in Dubai, comes off a second-place finish to War Zone in the Grade 3 Poker Handicap.

If the race comes off the turf, Saint Verre and El Gran Papa become the ones to beat.