Tacitus gets what was needed out of Monday workout, on target for Woodward
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Tacitus has never been the kind of horse that would wow anyone in the morning. As his trainer Bill Mott says, he’ll only work “as fast as his workmate takes him.”
Mott’s workmate of choice here Monday morning was another Juddmonte homebred, the unraced 3-year-old Nubian, who wound up “taking” Tacitus to an average five-furlong clocking of 1:01.75 over the main track. Tacitus worked with blinkers on this week after breezing without blinkers in his previous local works, all over the Oklahoma training track.
“That’s just him,” Mott said. “He’s never been a great work horse, although he can work fast if you put him with fast horses, like he did with Modernist and Frank’s Rockette prior to the Suburban. But he came home his final quarter in 23 and change and galloped out another eighth in under 13 this morning, and he did it easily. That’s all we were looking for. He’s continued to do well up here since the Suburban.”
Tacitus stormed to a resounding 8 3/4-length victory in the Grade 2 Suburban on July 4 at Belmont Park, easily his best effort of the season and best since finishing third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup more than nine months earlier. He remains on target for the Grade 1 Woodward on Sept. 5.
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Speaking of Frank’s Rockette, she recently joined Mott’s main string at Saratoga after spending most of the summer at Belmont following her near record-setting performance winning the Grade 3 Victory Ride on July 4 at Belmont. She’s pointing toward the Grade 2 Prioress on the Woodward undercard.
Mott also said he is still not ruling out the Kentucky Oaks as an option for Harvey’s Lil Goil’s next start. Harvey’s Lil Goil is coming off a third-place finish behind Swiss Skydiver after stumbling at the start of the Grade 1 Alabama.
“It’s a little quick to come back for the Oaks, and I’m certainly not under any pressure to run her there,” Mott said. “But with Swiss Skydiver, Gamine, and the filly from the West Coast [Speech] all in the race, that’s a lot of speed and if they wound up knocking heads it would be to her advantage, so we’re at least still thinking about it at the moment.”