Caramel Swirl Wins Gallant Bloom S. After Double Disqualification

There was fast action and drama galore, and like all the best thrillers, it ended with a plot twist. Caramel Swirl (Union Rags) had been keeping good company in her last two starts, but by the end of a wild running of the GII Gallant Bloom S., her losing streak would be over via the double disqualification of Sterling Silver (Cupid) and Headland (Paynter), both of whom would be placed behind her.

Company doesn't come tougher than two Champions, and that is exactly who Caramel Swirl had to contend with last out in the GI Ballerina H.–won by MGISW Echo Zulu (Gun Runner), second was MGISW Goodnight Olive (Ghostzapper), and losing third by a nose to MGISW Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile)–and two back in the GII Bed O'Roses S., where she ran behind Goodnight Olive as well as the gritty MGSW & MGISP Wicked Halo (Gun Runner).

In her customary spot at the very back of the field after the jump, she settled into the trip from the rail and was called on by Junior Alvarado for a rally passing the five-sixteenths marker. Moved out for room in upper stretch as Headland was intent on making the race from the rail, she was closing fast into the final furlong but had all moment stopped when Sterling Silver and Headland closed her gap outside the sixteenth pole. Doing her best to find her feet in the closing strides, she picked up the unofficial third place spot as Sterling Silver crossed the line first with Headland coming in behind her.

After a lengthy objection and stewards' inquiry involving the entire board, the winner and the runner-up were both disqualified for interference in separate events. The official order of finish was then Caramel Swirl, Sterling Silver, and Headland to third.

“She was there for me and she was fighting. I thought I had the horse to hold my spot and protect myself right there. She ran great,” said Alvarado afterwards.

Of what happened during the running, he added: “I had a horse outside of me coming from the seven path [Sterling Silver] and I didn't mind because I knew they would try to squeeze me a little there. It's a big race and you have to defend your race. But they both [Sterling Silver and Headland] got right in front of me. I clipped heels with the horse to the inside [Headland], then when I got out of there, I was [shut off] by the horse outside of me [Sterling Silver]. That takes it to a different level. Now, I'm in a terrible spot where I almost went down. I'm just glad everybody got back safe, and I think it was the right decision.”

When asked about a potential start in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, Michael Banahan, director of bloodstock for Godolphin, reported that while Caramel Swirl had run against some of the expected competitors in the field before, the plan was for Matareya to go to the race as well. “We'll get [Caramel Swirl] back and see how she is and go from there. Two is better than one, so we'll see what we can do.”

Pedigree Note

Out of a half-sister to MGISW Frosted (Tapit) and GSW Indulgent (Bernardini), Caramel Swirl is another successful homebred for the venerable Godolphin operation. Hailing from a female line filled with track and breeding successes such as champion 2-year-old colt, MGISW Midshipman; GSW Elsa (Animal Kingdom); MGISP Gouverneur Morris (Constitution) and a fleet of Group winners in Australia, the victress is the most successful runner for dam Caramel Snap. The mare has produced a 2-year-old Decatur Street (Street Sense) and a yearling full-brother to Caramel Swirl who had been exported to Japan last year. She went to Not This Time for 2024.

Sunday, Belmont The Big A
GALLANT BLOOM S.-GII, $250,000, Belmont The Big A, 10-1, 3yo/up, f/m, 6 1/2f, 1:16.18, ft.
1–CARAMEL SWIRL, 124, m, 5, by Union Rags
           1st Dam: Caramel Snap, by Smart Strike
           2nd Dam: Fast Cookie, by Deputy Minister
           3rd Dam: Fleet Lady, by Avenue of Flags
O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-William I. Mott; J-Junior Alvarado. $137,500. Lifetime Record: GISP, 16-6-4-3, $779,950. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Sterling Silver, 122, f, 4, Cupid–Sheet Humor, by Distorted Humor. ($13,000 Ylg '20 FTKSEL). O-Mark T. Anderson; B-Mallory & Karen Mort (NY); T-Thomas Albertrani. $50,000.
3–Headland, 122, m, 7, Paynter–Miss Sheltowee, by Najran.1ST GRADED BLACK TYPE. ($17,000 Wlg '16 KEENOV; $25,000 Ylg '17 OBSWIN; $50,000 2yo '18 OBSAPR). O-Thomas and Daryn A. Brockley; B-Sheltowee Farm & WinStar Farm, LLC (KY); T-George Weaver. $30,000.
Margins: 1, 4, HF. Odds: 0.95, 6.30, 18.60.
Also Ran: Beguine, Undervalued Asset, Remain Anonymous.
Click for the Equibase.com chart and the TJCIS.com PPs. VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.

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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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Godolphin’s Amaretti Tastes Maiden Victory At Keeneland

3rd-Keeneland, $100,000, Msw, 4-12, 3yo/up, f/m, 6f, 1:10.58, ft, 7 lengths.
AMARETTI (f, 4, Bernardini–Caramel Snap, by Smart Strike), last seen a debut second June 5 at Belmont, returned to the races in this spot as the even-money favorite. Tracking just to the inside of pacesetter The Princess Says (Collected), the homebred shot through an opening along the rail into the far turn and never looked back in a seven length romp over the pursuing Kid's Last Laugh (Practical Joke). The filly's GSW second dam Fast Cookie (Deputy Minister) is responsible for MGISW sire Frosted (Tapit) and is out of GSW Fleet Lady, making her a half-sister to champion Midshipman. The winner is a half-sister to Caramel Swirl (Union Rags), GSW & GISP, $492,200. Her unraced mare is also responsible for a 2-year-old colt named Decatur Street (Street Sense) and a yearling colt by Union Rags who was sent to Japan last year. Lifetime Record: 2-1-1-0, $78,450. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG.
O/B-Godolphin (KY); T-William I. Mott.

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Friday Racing Insights: Frosted’s Half-Brother Unveiled At Ellis

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency

6th-ELP, $60K, Msw, 2yo, 5 1/2f, 4:10 p.m.

   Godolphin and trainer Brad Cox take the wrapper off homebred LAST COOKIE (Bernardini) Friday at Ellis Park, a son of MGSP Fast Cookie (Deputy Minister) making him a half-brother to MGISW & Darley stallion Frosted (Tapit) and GSW Caramel Swirl (Union Rags). He is also a full-brother to GSW Indulgent. Fast Cookie herself is a half-sister to MGISW & sire Midshipman (Unbridled's Song) and to the dam of MGISP Solomini (Curlin). TJCIS PPs

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