Barbara D. Livingston
Close Hatches, the winner of the Mother Goose Stakes last out, will skip the July 20 Coaching Club American Oaks due to a fever that cost her some training time.
ELMONT, N.Y. – Barring a setback in her training, Close Hatches, a three-time graded stakes-winning 3-year-old filly, will run in the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 1, trainer Bill Mott said Friday.
“She deserves a chance to be in there,” Mott said on an overcast fall morning at Belmont Park. “She will be.”
Close Hatches gives Mott a potent 1-2 punch for the Distaff, in which he also will run the race’s two-time defending winner, Royal Delta. Mott has won the Distaff five times, including the last three, when it was called the Ladies’ Classic.