Mott sends out two promising debut winners
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HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Bill Mott sent out a pair of very impressive 3-year-old debut winners here Saturday, Chief Wallabee and Thunderously.
Chief Wallabee registered a 1 1/2-length victory going seven furlongs in the fourth race. Thunderously was an even easier five-length winner going 1 1/16 miles a couple of hours later. Both horses were ridden by jockey Junior Alvarado, who had four winners on the card.
“We liked them both. They both trained well but we got late starts. Unfortunately we didn’t get to run in August or September, which we would have liked. We just couldn’t do it,” said Mott. “So now we’re playing the hand that’s dealt to us.”
Mott was obviously very impressed by both horses, particularly the way Thunderously finished launching his career around two turns.
Thunderously “had a huge turn of foot,” Mott said in the winner’s circle immediately after the race. “He started kind of early and for him to re-break. . . . He won easier than the other one. I partially ran him a mile and a sixteenth to keep the two of them apart, although if the race had been a mile I would have run him a mile. The way he trained, I thought he was more of a two turn horse.
“[Chief Wallabee], I don’t know. That remains to be seen, although Junior was extremely pleased with his gallop-out.”
Despite the way both horses performed, Mott was hesitant to commit either of them to the Derby trail at this point.
“It’s late. I don’t want to be a naysayer but I think the horses that have the advantage are the ones that began in September or October and had that time to mature,” Mott said. “It can be done. But these horses are behind mentally and experience-wise. That’s just the reality of it. Most Derby horses run as 2-year-olds.”
Sovereignty, Mott’s 2025 Kentucky Derby winner, ran three times as a 2-year-old.