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“Best of Both Worlds”: Mott at Home at Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – When three veteran turf writers approached him at his Saratoga barn last week, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott impishly decided to reverse roles. Before the journalists were able to offer more than a hello, Mott started asking pretty much the same questions he knew were coming his way.

For several seconds, the interviewee was the light-hearted interviewer.

Mott knows the drill. He has been training horses since he was a teenager in Mobridge, South Dakota, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame at the age of 45–the youngest flat trainer in history–in 1998 and in the 25 years since has further burnished his reputation as one of the Thoroughbred racing's all-time greats. Equibase stats show him ranked fourth in career purse earnings with $330,933,373 and eighth in victories with 5,323. The great Cigar delivered 19 of those wins–16 in a row–and $9,999,815 in earnings to those totals in the mid-1990s.

With a crew of accomplished stakes runners, Mott will once again be a major player during the 155th summer of racing in Saratoga that starts Thursday. While Cody's Wish (Curlin), who is being considered for the GI Whitney S. on Aug. 5, may have the highest profile at the moment, he is not the only star in Mott's barn located next to the Oklahoma training track. Also in residence along the shedrow are champion sprinter Elite Power (Curlin) and multiple graded stakes winners Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed), Frank's Rockette (Into Mischief), War Like Goddess (English Channel), Art Collector (Bernardini), and Caramel Swirl (Union Rags). Graded stakes winners Poppy Flower (Lea) and Wakanaka (Ire) (Power {GB}) are still at Belmont Park. Art Collector is the only one not being pointed to a Saratoga start.

After stepping back into his familiar role of talking about his horses and upcoming races, Mott acknowledged that he was upbeat and ready for the upcoming season.

“I am, all the time. I don't panic as much as I used to. I don't get the anxiety that I used to have,” he said. “I'm excited and I'm looking forward to it. There was a point when I thought I had to be leading trainer here. It's like, 'Oh, I was leading trainer last year. I've got to do it again.' I don't feel that. I just hope each individual horse does well.”

Mott saddled his first horse at Saratoga in 1984, has been at the meet every year since 1987 and won or shared the training title nine times between 1992 and 2007. These days he often finishes third behind the dominant duo of Todd Pletcher and Chad Brown.

“Naturally, I don't have quite as many as some of them,” Mott said. “I have a large stable. I have the same large stable, like I used to have, but some of these guys have got huge stables.”

Last year, he was fifth in wins with 16 from 114 starters. Brown snagged the title with 42 wins from 197 starts and Pletcher was next with 38 wins from 159 starters. With Olympiad (Speightstown)'s victory in the $1-million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup, Mott finished third in purse earnings with his personal best of $3,262,117.

With Eddie Davis up, Cody's Wish gallops Wednesday morning | Sarah Andrew

Godolphin homebred Cody's Wish could give Mott his first victory in the $1-million Whitney. The 4-year-old colt has won six in a row and nine of 10 starts since breaking his maiden in October 2021. In his most recent start, Cody's Wish won the GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan Mile H. at Belmont Park. He has proved effective at two turns, winning the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile in November. Mott said the challenge will be the distance, to see if he can stretch out a bit more and continue his dominant run at 1 1/8 miles.

“He has not won at nine furlongs,” Mott said. “We know what he can do at a mile. Now older and more experienced, seasoned, maybe the mile and an eighth is more within his reach.”

Mott is leaning toward the Whitney because he doesn't have any other options on the Saratoga schedule. He is not interested in running Cody's Wish in the six-furlong GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt on July 29–his 70th birthday–as it is Elite Power's preferred distance. The more suitable seven-furlong GI Forego S., which Cody's Wish won last year, is on Aug. 26

“That's a long way, a long time to wait,” Mott said. “You kind of get forced into thinking about other things. If they had a flat mile race here that was a million dollars, we'd be looking at that but they don't have it. The Whitney is one of the two more prestigious races they run up here and he is a possible to run in it.”

Mott has won 464 races in 2,646 starts and earned $41,065,994 in purses at Saratoga. According to Equibase, he has 91 stakes victories at the Spa. Since he notched his first graded stakes win at Saratoga in 1990 with Chief Honcho in the GII Jim Dandy, his horses have prevailed in 29 different graded stakes with a total of 65 winners. Twenty-five have been in GI races.

Despite all that success in Saratoga, Mott has yet to win either the Whitney or the GI Travers S. He is 0-for-11 in the Whitney with three seconds. In the Travers, he has two seconds in 10 starts.

War Like Goddess trains Wednesday at the Spa | Sarah Andrew

Through the years he has won the GII National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame S. and the GII Glens Falls S. seven times each, the GI Fourstardave H. and the GII Bernard Baruch H. five times each and the GI Diana S. and the Jim Dandy four times. Since being hired as Bert and Diana Firestone's trainer in 1987, he has had at least one graded stakes win in 34 of 36 seasons at Saratoga.

Casa Creed will be Mott's first stakes runner of the meet in Saturday's GIII Kelso S., formerly run as the Forbidden Apple. He picked up his third Saratoga win last year in the Fourstardave. Mott said that Poppy Flower and Wakanaka could run in the GIII Caress S. on July 22. Frank's Rockette is preparing for the GII Honorable Miss H. on July 26. War Like Goddess is headed to the Glens Falls on Aug. 3, a race she has won the last two summers. Caramel Swirl may make her next start in the GI Ballerina on Aug. 26.

In the early 1980s, Mott was based at Churchill Downs and had emerged as a top, young trainer. He recalls that it took some courage to make his first venture to Saratoga in 1984.

“Absolutely,” he said. “It was to see the people that were here and who you're running against and everything. Yeah, it was a big deal to me. It was a big deal.”

That summer he picked up three seconds in seven starts. The next year, he brought four horses and each of them ended up second. He skipped 1986 and in 1987 made his first trip to the winner's circle.

For many years, Mott has been based in Saratoga from April to November when the training track is open. His main barn was once used by Hall of Famer MacKenzie Miller.

“This is actually home, and I wouldn't want to do it any other way,” he said. “At this moment. I think I've got the best of both worlds right now. I have no complaints.”

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Saturday Insights: Daughter Of MGISW Elate Kicks Off Action At Belmont

1st-BEL, $90K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5 1/2f, 1:05 p.m.

The first foal out of MGISW Elate (Medaglia d'Oro), EXHILARATE (War Front) debuts for her dam's connections of Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider and trainer Bill Mott. Elate, who took both the GI Alabama S. and the GI Beldame S., is out of a daughter of MGSW/MGISP Yell (A.P. Indy), also the producer of GISP Chide (Blame) and the dam of MGSW Tax (Arch). Exhilarate enters off a best-of-44 bullet drill two works back, going four furlongs in :48 2/5 at Saratoga. Jockey Junior Alvarado gets the mount for her unveiling. TJCIS PPS

2nd-ELP, $70K, Msw, 2yo, 5f, 1:14 p.m.

A Godolphin homebred, Collins (Into Mischief) is a half-brother to SW/GSP Meru (Sky Mesa) and out of a half-sister to MGSW Skylighter (Sky Mesa) and to the dam of MGSW Pixelate (City Zip). Under his third dam, MGISW Nastique (Naskra), is G1 Emirates Airline Dubai World Cup third Cat O'Mountain (Street Cry {Ire}) and Singapore's Horse of the Year War Affair (NZ) (O'Reilly {NZ}).

Opposing him from the inside is $325,000 FTSAUG purchase Nullify (American Pharoah) who is out of a half to SW/MGISP Twentytwentyvision (Pollard's Vision), MSW Unusual Heatwave (Unusual Heat), and GSW Alphie's Bet (Tribal Rule). TJCIS PPS

3rd-LRC, $45K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5f, 5:05 p.m.

After breezing in a sharp :9.4 at OBS March, Benedetta (City of Light) brought a final bid of $750,000 from Kaleem Shah Inc. and debuts Saturday for trainer Simon Callaghan. The filly is a half to MSW/GSP Jo Jo Air (Scat Daddy) while her dam is a half to MGISW and $4.3m Fasig-Tipton November purchase Switch (Quiet American). TJCIS PPS

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The Week In Review: On Another Day Dominated By Super Trainers, Jason Cook Wins One For The Little Guy

There were 13 graded stakes races run in North America Saturday and the combination of Bob Baffert, Chad Brown, Steve Asmussen, Brad Cox and Mark Casse won eight of them. That's three Hall of Famers and two future Hall of Famers. Not that any of this should come as a surprise. The so-called super trainer stables seem to only be getting bigger and more powerful by the day, leaving everyone else to fight over the leftover scraps.

So what chance did Jason Cook have in the GII John A. Nerud S. at Belmont? He has a four-horse stable and in the 34 years he's been training, had never won a graded stakes race.

Now he has.

Three Technique (Mr. Speaker), a horse Cook claimed for $40,000, won the seven-furlong sprint by 3 3/4 lengths, beating, among others, horses trained by Todd Pletcher and Bill Mott.

“To tell you the truth, it didn't sink in until later,” Cook said. “But it was great to win a graded stakes. That's what make this sport so great. Anybody can win on any given day. That's why we run them.”

That Cook has persevered the way he has is admirable. For the last 11 years, he has raised his daughter Peyton by himself. Cook's wife Tracey died from sepsis when Peyton was just 2 1/2 years old. He has had to balance being a single parent, taking his daughter to her soccer games and attending parent-teacher conferences with training horses. He admits it hasn't been easy and that he hasn't been able to devote all his time to training.

“I have raised my daughter by myself,” the 49-year-old Cook said. “That's one of the reasons things have been pretty slow for me. I'm spending a lot of my time going to her soccer games. There are trade offs in life.”

Cook grew up on the racetrack. His father Lois Cook was a jockey who won the 1957 Kentucky Oaks with Lori-El and finished tenth in the 1955 Kentucky Derby. Jason Cook started out as a hotwalker when he was 13 and took out his trainer's license when he was 17. He won his first race in 1993 when he was just 19.

“I never really thought about doing anything else other than training,” Cook said. “It was what I wanted to do when I younger. At that age, you think being a trainer is the greatest thing in the world. You find out it's not. Its not as easy as you thought it would be.”

He won three stakes in 1996 and another in 1997, but his win totals remained modest. Based on wins, his best year was 2008 when he won 18 races. There have also been plenty of years like 2020, when he went 1-for-19, and 2018 when he was 1-for-24. He said he never got discouraged, but the right horses never seemed to find their way into his barn.

“There are a lot of capable people that given the chance might be the next big trainer,” he said. “There's somebody training horses somewhere out there not doing any good and the reason why is they don't have the stock that allows them to show their talent. It all comes down to the horse. You have to have the horses.”

But he says he can see why so many owners flock to the same top five or six trainers.

“Those people who have those big stables, I've never begrudged them,” Cook said. “Todd Pletcher, Bill Mott, they are at the top of the game because they produce very good results. You can't be mad at somebody because of their success.”

To help make ends meet over the years, Cook would haul horses, something he no longer does. His main client was Dale Romans.

“That was something I did to help me make a living,” he said. “I used to go to all the stakes races for Dale. I trained a few horses, I hauled horses for Dale. That's how I got by.”

In the fall of 2021 Cook, who had just two winners on the year at the time, was surprised to see Three Technique show up in a $40,000 claimer at Churchill. Four starts earlier, he had finished third in the same John A. Nerud S. for trainer Jeremiah Englehart and owner Bill Parcells's August Dawn Farm. Just prior to the claiming race, he RNA'd for $47,000 at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

“It looked like they were giving up on him,” Cook said. “Yes, I was worried that it was a suspicious drop in class.”

But to be able to acquire a horse for $40,000 that had, only a few months earlier, hit the board in a graded stakes race was something Cook and owners David Miller, Eric Grindley and John Werner couldn't resist. They weren't alone. There were 27 claims put in for Three Technique that day.

“Someone asked me what did you see in this horse to claim him,” Cook said. “I just got lucky and hit the lottery.”

Three Technique lost his first five races for Cook, but broke through to win last year's Knicks Go S. at Churchill Downs at 36-1, giving Cook his first stakes win in 25 years. He would go on a six-race losing streak before winning a May 27 allowance at Churchill. Cook couldn't decide between the Nerud and the July 2 Hanshin S. at Ellis Park, the same race in which he almost beat Cody's Wish (Curlin) last year, losing by just a neck. He decided on the Nerud because he thought his horse preferred one turn.

Three Technique | Joe Labozzetta

Prior to the Nerud, he had never started a horse at Belmont. His lone starter in New York had come in a 1997 claiming race at Saratoga.

“I'm going to try and buck the trend and win one in New York,” Cook said prior to the race. “My dad was a jockey and I like history and that track has a lot of history. My dad was one of the leading riders in the country in the '50s.”

With Javier Castellano aboard, Three Technique won comfortably, looking like a horse who can hold his own against top sprinters.

“I just got to sit back and watch,” Cook said. “The horse had to do all the hard work. He is a very determined horse and he always runs his race.”

One of the first calls he got after Three Technique crossed the wire was from Peyton. She usually joins her father at the track whenever he has a horse in a race, but she didn't make the trip to New York.

“This was one of the few trips she didn't make,” Cook said. “She was home with some friends. She was so excited. She was crying and screaming she was so excited. I wish she would have been here.”

Cook isn't sure where Three Technique will run next. One concern he has is that the horse doesn't like the heat, which could be a factor later this summer in places like Saratoga. That's a problem for another day. For now, he's going to sit back and relax and enjoy the day he beat the big boys.

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Graded Stakes Fireworks Set For Saturday

Ellis Park will host its first Grade I race in its 100-year history Saturday, but there are plenty of other graded stakes scheduled before the Fourth of July at Belmont Park, Delaware Park, Woodbine Racetrack and Gulfstream Park. Here's a rundown of what's on tap.

Showdown in Belmont's Dwyer

One of two graded stakes on Saturday in Elmont is the GIII Dwyer S. Going a mile, the race pits Fort Bragg (Tapit), who was forced to scratch from the GI Woody Stephens S. by trainer Bob Baffert when the 3-year-old colt came down with a fever, against the undefeated Saudi Crown (Always Dreaming), who is making his stakes debut for Brad Cox.

“This gives us options. We can see how we do here,” said Tom Ryan, managing partner of SF Racing. “There will be opportunities to stretch him out down the road if we feel that's the right thing. A race like the Allen Jerkens could be on the radar for him later in the summer if we felt like he needs a cutback.”

The other half of the co-feature is the GII John A. Nerud S. for older horses at seven furlongs, which includes Candy Man Rocket (Candy Ride {Arg}) the winner of the GIII Runhappy S. at Belmont May 13 for Bill Mott. “He's run some good races and if he gets a good trip, he usually runs pretty well,” the Hall of Fame trainer said. “I think he's fine on the lead or fine with a target. It just depends how the race sets up.”

Promiseher America Looks to Rebound

Trainer Ray Handal scooped up the first graded race of his career when 3-year-old Promiseher America (American Pharoah) won the GIII Gazelle S. at Aqueduct in early April. With a tough trip in the GI Kentucky Oaks, the chestnut filly will look to rebound in Saturday's GIII Delaware Oaks. She will face a pair of challengers in Juddmonte homebred Fireline (Arrogate) from the barn of Chad Brown and Siena and WinStar Farm's Miracle (Mendelssohn) trained by Todd Pletcher. Also part of this card is the GIII Robert G. Dick Memorial S. over the grass, which includes Ian Wilkes trainee Miss Yearwood (Will Take Charge)–winner last out of the Keertana S. at Churchill Downs.

Five at Woodbine

Canada Day on Saturday fits in well as Woodbine Entertainment hosts its own fireworks when it cards five graded races. The GIII Marine S. includes Chad Brown invader Turf King (Ire) (Kingman {GB}) whose main rival will be King's Plate hopeful Twin City (Klimt), while the GIII Selene S. witnesses the return of reigning Eclipse Award-winning juvenile filly Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief).

Wonder Wheel | Coady Photography

Not seen since she was ninth in the GI Kentucky Oaks, the Mark Casse trainee makes her first start at her trainer's home base. “I was really disappointed with her effort in the Ashland,” Casse said from his Ocala base. “And the Oaks was kind of a weird-run race. Then I wanted to get her up there and train her on the Tapeta. I just find that horses thrive at Woodbine, more than anywhere. I just kind of felt like we needed to get her back to square one, try to get her some confidence.”

Switching to the turf, trainer Larry Rivelli sends sprinter One Timer (Trappe Shot) north of the border for the GII Highlander S. as his 4-year-old gelding meets George Weaver shipper Outlaw Kid (Violence). Also on the grass, the GII Nassau S. includes Todd Pletcher trainee Scotish Star (Arg) (Key Deputy) who will look to upend current Canadian Horse of the Year Moira (Ghostzapper). Back on the Tapeta, the top three finishers from the June 4 running of the GII Eclipse S. at Woodbine–Treason (Constitution), Carrothers (Mshawish) and Tyson (Tapit)–will once again face one another in the GIII Dominion Day S.

Antonucci After More Graded Glory

Trainer Jena Antonucci made history when she won the GI Belmont S. last month and now she is looking for more graded hardware, this time at her southern digs in South Florida. Doc Amster (Midshipman) will compete in Gulfstream Park's GIII Smile Sprint Invitational S., but the 6-year-old will have to face down potential favorites in Dean Delivers (Cajun Breeze) for trainer Michael Yates and Todo Fino (Chi) (Verrazano) for Amador Sanchez.

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