Mott looking to wrap up classic double – asterisk or not

ELMONT, N.Y. – Bill Mott never had won the Kentucky Derby until this year, so it’s not like the Hall of Fame trainer has a point of reference as to what it feels like to cross the wire first instead of getting put up via disqualification. But he instinctively knows it’s different, and he has sensed it in the way people congratulate him for Country House’s success five weeks ago.

“It’s like they’re doing it with an asterisk,” Mott said earlier this week. “It doesn’t have quite the same feeling. All that said, our horse ran pretty well to get where he did. He ran hard. And at the end of the day, we got pretty lucky.”

Mott is hoping to bookend the Triple Crown with another victory on Saturday. Although Country House is just getting back into serious training after taking ill following the Derby, Mott will try to win the 151st Belmont Stakes here at Belmont Park on Saturday with Tacitus, who crossed the wire fourth in the Derby and then was placed third following the disqualification of Maximum Security.

A trainer winning the Derby and Belmont with two different horses has happened on several occasions, most recently just two years ago, when Todd Pletcher won the Derby with Always Dreaming and the Belmont with Tapwrit. Tacitus, like Tapwrit, bypassed the Preakness to come into the Belmont off a five-week layoff.

“I always feel fresh horses run pretty well,” Mott said.

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Tacitus, a son of Tapit, is a Juddmonte Farms homebred who is out of the mare Close Hatches, a five-time Grade 1 winner whom Mott also trained for Juddmonte and who was the champion older female of 2014. This is her first foal.

“I do enjoy training the families,” Mott said. “In certain situations I’ve trained the dam, and the granddam, and the great granddam. It adds something special. This being the first foal of Close Hatches, it’s fun for that reason.”

Tacitus entered the Derby following a victory in the Wood Memorial. He had a bit of a rough trip in the Derby. He was shuffled back early and then briefly awaited a seam 550 yards from the wire when Maximum Security veered out and caused a chain reaction bumping incident that compromised several runners, including War of Will, and forced riders behind the unfolding chaos to use caution before proceeding.

“He had to find his room, then was weaving in and out,” Mott said. “He had to alter course several times. He ate a lot of track, a lot of mud. The track was like pea soup. It wasn’t the cleanest trip. Not a lot of excuses. He was moving well at the end of the race.”

Tacitus finished 1 1/2 lengths behind stablemate Country House. More than 20 minutes later, the Churchill Downs stewards disqualified Maximum Security, promoting Country House to first.

“I grasped it right away. I grasped it immediately,” Mott said of the significance. “I’m sure there were some stakeholders in the outcome of the Derby – the owner, the trainer, gamblers – who think Maximum Security got the short end of the stick. But anyone with any knowledge of the business and an appreciation for fairness has to believe they did the right thing.

“War of Will is a talented horse. I was pleased as much as anyone to see him come back and win the Preakness,” Mott added, saying he thinks those who thought a DQ should not take place believed War of Will “wouldn’t have finished in front of Maximum Security.”

“But watching the Preakness, how do you know? When the incident happened, he was rolling right up,” Mott said. “You don’t know, at that point of the race, how much it hurt.”

Mott said he “hates it for the owners” of Country House – Maury Shields, Guinness McFadden, and the LNJ Foxwoods Stable of Larry, Nanci, and Jaime Roth – that there is controversy regarding the Derby victory.

“I don’t care. I do this every day,” he said. “The Derby’s the Derby. I don’t want to downplay it. It’s a great race. It’s difficult to win. The stars have to line up to be able to win it.”

Country House had a cough two days after the Derby, and his bloodwork was out of whack, causing him to be sent to the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., where he spent a week. He is still at Churchill Downs, but after missing two weeks of training, he has only recently returned to galloping after initially jogging each morning for a week.

“He’ll go to Saratoga soon,” said Mott, who said the Grade 1, $1.25 million Travers on Aug. 24 will be the main target this summer, with a possible prep in Saratoga’s Grade 2, $600,000 Jim Dandy on July 27.

“We’re leaning in that direction. The Travers is the race we’d like to run in. With things being at stake, I’d like to see Country House come back and repeat the performance we saw in the Derby.”

Minus the asterisk, that is.