Tacitus breezes for Wood Memorial

INDIANTOWN, Fla. – There was little time for trainer Bill Mott to wallow in the disappointment that was Hidden Scroll’s sixth-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 1 Florida Derby.

Twelve hours after one of his horses stepped off the Kentucky Derby trail, Mott watched another, Tacitus, put in his final workout for next Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

With fog still hovering over the Payson Park training center’s main track shortly after dawn Sunday, Tacitus worked a half-mile in 49.91 seconds in company with the 3-year-old maiden filly Jasminum. Tacitus, the Tampa Bay Derby winner, went his opening quarter in 25.02 seconds and his final quarter in 24.89. He galloped out five furlongs in 1:03.12 and pulled up six furlongs in 1:18.34.

“He doesn’t wow you in the morning. He never has, unless you really ask him,” Mott said. “They went off slow, finished okay. I don’t think he did a lot more than that before he went up to Tampa. If he was fit for the first one, he should be fit for this one.”

Tacitus’s victory in the Tampa Bay Derby was the colt’s first start of the year. Unlike Hidden Scroll, whose ability to get a route of ground Mott had questioned, Tacitus has always given Mott the indication that the 1 1/8-mile distance of the Wood and even the 1 1/4 miles of the Kentucky Derby should not be problematic.

“I don’t think there’s a big question mark with him, but you still want to see him do it,” Mott said. “The type of horse he is, it’s a safer bet that he’d get a mile and a quarter – his style, his demeanor, his pedigree.”

Tacitus is a son of Tapit out of the Grade 1-winning mare Close Hatches. Tacitus won a maiden race going a mile at Aqueduct last fall in his second career start. He then closed powerfully from the back of the pack to win the Tampa Bay Derby by 1 1/4 lengths over Outshine.

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“I would have liked to have had him a little closer to the pace,” Mott said. “On that track, if you get too far back, a horse has a hard time to get going.”

Tacitus figures to be favored in a Wood field of at least nine horses. Others considered definite are Outshine, Gotham winner Haikal, Withers winner Tax, the Jason Servis-trained duo of Final Jeopardy and Grumps Little Tots, Private Terms runner-up Joevia, Withers runner-up Not That Brady, and Pasco Stakes runner-up Overdeliver. Trainer Bob Baffert said Dessman and/or Much Better are possible.

On Sunday, Much Better, fourth in the Gotham, worked six furlongs in 1:13.60 over the Belmont Park training track. He is also nominated to the Bay Shore Stakes at seven furlongs on the same card.

Meanwhile, Mott said he had no regrets about having Javier Castellano rate Hidden Scroll in the Florida Derby despite the slow early fractions.

“There’s not anything to blame. I don’t think anybody did anything wrong,” Mott said. “I don’t know that I would have given any different instructions. We did what we did, and the horse didn’t respond. Maybe we let the horse down a little bit, expecting so much from him.”

Mott said he most likely would shorten Hidden Scroll up in distance and perhaps point to an allowance race for his next start. Hidden Scroll was at the front of his stall Sunday morning, screaming at Mott for attention and some carrots.

Among the other horses working for Mott on Sunday was Mucho, who went a half-mile in 48.07 seconds. He worked in company with the maiden filly Bonnet. Mucho started two lengths behind Bonnet and finished one behind at the wire.

“It was a little faster than what I wanted,” Mott said. “I should have had him a half-length off in the beginning.”

Mucho is coming off a first-level allowance win at Gulfstream Park on March 1. In the Bay Shore, he will face Mind Control, to whom he finished second in last summer’s Grade 1 Hopeful, and Call Paul, the Saratoga Special and Swale winner.