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Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott said he was pleased with the effort in which the 4-year-old English Channel bay stalked from fourth before closing six-wide to secure the win under Julien Leparoux.

“I thought it was a very good effort. When she's going to the front, it's like poetry in motion,” Mott said.

War Like Goddess, a $30,000 purchase at the OBS June 2019 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale, has won 6-of-7 starts. She entered from a trio of graded scores under Leparoux, comprising the 11-furlong Grade 3 Orchid in March at Gulfstream Park, the 12-furlong Grade 3 Bewitch in April at Keeneland Race Course, and the 12-furlong Grade 2 Glens Falls on August 7 over the Spa inner turf.

While most of her previous efforts have come from further off the pace, War Like Goddess was in closer attendance on Saturday. Mott said he didn't provide any specific instructions.

“I wanted her to be wherever the jockey thought she was comfortable,” Mott said. “She ran well. There's only so much you can say about it. She's a winner.”

In victory, War Like Goddess secured a “Win and You're In” berth to the 11-furlong Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf in November at Del Mar.

Don Alberto Stable's Forza Di Oro, a 4-year-old Speightstown chestnut, set the pace in Saturday's Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup before fading to third.

“He ran a good race. No excuse,” Mott said.

The lightly-raced homebred, who won the Grade 3 Discovery in November at Aqueduct, was making just his second start of the year out of a winning nine-furlong effort at Saratoga on July 21.

Mott said the nine-furlong $500,000 Grade 1 Woodward on October 2 at Belmont Park in Elmont, N.Y., is a possible target.

“He hasn't had many races, so I wouldn't be opposed to running him,” Mott said.

Forza Di Oro boasts a record of 7-4-1-1 with purse earnings of $309,375.

Wachtel Stable, Pantofel Stable, and Jerold Zaro's Baby Yoda garnered a 114 Beyer for an impressive 4 1/4-length score Saturday over well-regarded stablemate Olympiad, a $700,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase who bested eventual graded-stakes placed Caddo River and eventual multiple graded stakes winner Greatest Honour at Saratoga last September.

With Jose Ortiz up, Baby Yoda settled in second position as Ducale set splits of :21.54 and :44.08 in the 6 1/2-furlong allowance sprint. Baby Yoda pressed into contention from the three-path in the turn and took command at the quarter pole en route to a swift win in 1:14.33 under a hand ride.

Mott said the effort was an eye-opener.

“I was pretty amazed, really. I was pretty impressed with his effort. I can honestly say, I didn't expect that, but I was pleased to see it,” Mott said. “It was exciting, actually, because I thought there was a pretty good horse in there that he beat that ran second.”

Olympiad garnered a 105 Beyer, besting Ducale by six lengths to complete the exacta.

Bred in Florida by Kathleen Amaya, Alexandro Centofanti, and Raffaele Centofanti, Baby Yoda won on debut for his former trainer, Charles Frock, in a $10,000 maiden-claiming sprint on May 30 at Pimlico.

Baby Yoda was purchased privately following a third-place finish in an optional-claiming sprint in June at Pimlico and transferred to Mott, who saddled the dark bay to a 1 1/4-length starter allowance win against older horses on July 17 traveling six furlongs at the Spa.

Mott said he has not picked out a target yet for Baby Yoda and was not ready to make a statement on whether the 3-year-old Prospective gelding might suit a race like the six-furlong $250,000 Grade 2 Vosburgh on October 9 at Belmont, or attempt to stretch out.

“I'm not guessing that right now. He looks pretty fast. It's a little too soon to think about it,” Mott said.

The Hall of Fame trainer didn't have to guess at the speedster's namesake, a character from the Star Wars Disney+ original television series The Mandalorian.

“I had to google Baby Yoda to figure out who he was,” Mott admitted.

Mott will saddle LRE Racing and JEH Racing Stable's High Oak in Monday's $300,000 Grade 1 Hopeful, a seven-furlong sprint for juveniles on Closing Day of the 40-day Spa summer meet.

The Gormley bay graduated on debut in June at Belmont and followed with a 4 1/4-length score in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special presented by Miller Lite on August 14.

While Mott was initially pointing High Oak to the $500,000 Grade 1 Champagne, a one-turn mile on October 2 at Belmont, the veteran conditioner said he was training too well to skip Monday's test.

“He's feeling really good and I just felt that rather than train him, we'd run him,” Mott said.

High Oak blew out three-eighths in :35.44 seconds Friday on the Oklahoma dirt training track. The $70,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase will exit post 8 under Junior Alvarado.

The post Mott Pleased With War Like Goddess In Flower Bowl, May Start Forza Di Oro In Woodward appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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The Jockey Club Gold Cup is a “Win and You're In” race for the Breeders' Cup Classic this fall at Del Mar.

The colt has only started six times in his career. Forza Di Oro broke his maiden in his second start as a juvenile, then ran a disappointing eighth in the G2 Remsen. Mott brought him back off a 10-month layoff to win an allowance race and the G3 Discovery last fall, the latter with a 101 Beyer figure, but the colt went back to the sidelines for another eight months.

Forza Di Oro's allowance win was his fourth from six starts, and improved his earnings to $209,375.

“Bill is a Hall of Famer,” Don Alberto stable manager Matt Hogan told the TDN. “This is what he does. He's phenomenal at that. A big horse like this, as Bill said, he's been a little bit of a project, but any little setback is obviously poorly timed. Giving him the time off and bringing him back this year, he just seemed a big, happy, fresh, sound animal that was ready to get out there and rock and roll when we put him back under tack here at the farm. To bring a horse off such a long layoff– yet again to such an impressive performance–just goes to show the capabilities of Bill and his team.”

Out of the graded stakes-placed Hard Spun mare Filare l'Oro, Forza Di Oro is a half-brother to multiple graded stakes winner Silver Dust from the family of Grade 1 winners Stop Traffic and Cross Traffic.

Read more at the Thoroughbred Daily News.

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As often is the case, Brad Cox — the 2020 Eclipse Award-winning trainer who tied with Kenny McPeek for last year's Ellis Park meet title — has the favorite in both races.

Don Alberto Stable's Dominga is the tepid 5-2 favorite in the Ellis Park Turf and will break from the rail under Shaun Bridgmohan. Klein Racing's Field Day is the 6-5 morning-line choice with Brian Hernandez Jr. in the Dade Park's field of seven running 5 1/2 furlongs.

“She's doing well,” Cox said of Dominga. “She's coming off a victory in a (third level) allowance at Churchill and she's a stakes-winner. She's got some pedigree. So we're hoping to add to her value by continuing to compete at the stakes level. She's had a really good year. We gave her a break last summer, and she seems to have moved forward as an older horse.”

Dominga is one of five horses cross-entered in Indiana Grand's Indiana General Assembly Distaff at the same distance on grass. But she drew post 11 for that stakes, with Cox saying he preferred her Ellis post.

The three horses entered only at Ellis — She'sonthewarpath, Pass the Plate and Nope — provide a solid core for an evenly-matched field.

In her three starts this year, 3-1 second choice She'sonthewarpath has faced some of the best turf fillies and mares in the country. In her last start, the 5-year-old mare finished third in Churchill Downs' Grade 3 Mint Julep won by Mintd and with Grade 1 winner Juliet Foxtrot second.

“She ran hard last time,” said Steve Margolis, who is stabled at Ellis Park for the first time since early in his training career 20 years ago. “I think we got a little unlucky. She broke and was in a good spot, and then some horse came over on her a little bit. When they got to the backside, she was last. She wiggled her way and kept going, and pretty much ran a big third. It's three weeks, but if I'd waited, there's another race here but it would have been almost two months between race.”

She'sonthewarpath, who won three stakes last year for owner-breeders Robert and Lawana Low, lost her two starts this year to Brendan Walsh-trained horses: Mintd in the Mint Julep and the 5 1/2-furlong Unbridled Sidney won by the very good turf sprinter Into Mystic. Margolis said he sprinted her just because it was really the only spot to get her back going after a seven-month layoff.

“She ran a good fourth, probably just a little too short,” he said. “Those are specialized horses running that distance. She's hooked some good company and always tries.”

She'sonthewarpath faces another Walsh horse in Nope, who enters the Ellis Park Turf off an impressive first-level allowance victory at Churchill after racing in blinkers for the first time. The Irish-bred daughter of No Nay Never is making her American stakes debut.

“She made a huge improvement the last race with the blinkers on,” Walsh said “I think that was key. Because up to that, she just lacked concentration more than anything, so it really worked the day we put them on. I'm hoping for more of the same.”

Nope concluded her 2-year-old season of 2019 with a fourth place – beaten a total of a half-length — in a Group 3 stakes at Newmarket after racing in Ireland.

“They felt she was a little unlucky in that race, and felt it bode well for her 3-year-old,” said Walsh, who received the filly but was only able to run her once in 2020 before Nope was sidelined 10 months. “She had some time off, but we've been gradually figuring her out. I felt the last race she made a big move forward, so maybe we're getting to her now. Hopefully we have yet to see the best of her.”

Owned by Tommy and Bonnie Hamilton's Silverton Hill Farms of Springfield, Ky., Pass the Plate comes in off a pair of 1 1/2-mile turf stakes, with a third in Keeneland's Grade 3 Bewitch Stakes and a fourth in Churchill Downs' $110,000 Keertana. She ended her 3-year-old season last December 26 with a nose victory in the Fair Grounds' Pago Hop at a mile.

“She ran really well in the Bewitch,” said trainer Paul McGee. “She ran well in the Keertana. That was a really oddly-run race. That's the race that the Al Stall filly (multiple stakes-winner Dalika) went out there in front by about 25 lengths all by her lonesome. And she wound up a good second. My filly, as usual, was out the back. She just doesn't have any speed. But I feel like she ran OK to be fourth. But after the mile-and-a-half races, you almost have to shorten up.”

Pass the Plate (6-1) will be reunited with Joe Talamo, McGee's nephew by marriage who last rode the filly to a second-place finish in last fall's off-the-turf Grade 2 Mrs. Revere at Churchill Downs.

McGee hopes down the road to run in Ellis' $100,000 Kentucky Downs Preview Ladies Turf. That's an automatic, fees-paid qualifier for the $750,000, Grade 3 Kentucky Downs Ladies Turf, though Pass the Plate could also fit well in the $550,000 Kentucky Downs Ladies Marathon at 1 5/16 miles at the Franklin track.

Will Dade Park be another field day for Field Day?

Klein Racing's Field Day, a son of the Pin Oak Stud stallion Broken Vow, has never been worse than third in eight lifetime starts, all sprinting and all but one on turf (and that one came off the grass). In his last two starts, Field Day captured Churchill Downs' William Walker Stakes and followed that with another victory in an open allowance race.

“There aren't a lot of options out there for him,” Cox said. “He breezed on the turf last week and we shipped him down there (to Ellis). He's doing well.”

The fastest horse in the race, based on speed figures, looks like Bob's Choice, the 8-5 second choice. He sports a 3-1-3 record in seven starts, all on dirt.

“He's got two siblings who were turf horses,” said trainer Larry Jones. “So we're going to give it try. He'll go as fast, I think, as we need him to as long as he takes to the surface.”

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The Wood Memorial card features the first Grade 1 of 2021 on the NYRA circuit in the $300,000 Carter Handicap, a seven-furlong sprint for older horses. The stakes-laden day also features the $250,000 Gazelle at nine furlongs for sophomore fillies offering 100-40-20-10 Kentucky Oaks qualifying points to the top-four finishers; the $200,000 Bay Shore, a seven-furlong sprint for sophomores; and the $150,000 Excelsior at nine furlongs for older horses.

By Empire Maker and out of the Bernardini mare Spare Change, Roman Centurian finished fourth last out to the victorious Life Is Good in the 1 1/16-mile Grade 2 San Felipe at Santa Anita Park.

The dark bay colt, a $550,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase, breezed back for the first time Thursday at Santa Anita covering a half-mile in 50.40 seconds.

“I think there's a very good chance that we will ship to New York,” said Callaghan. “He breezed very well yesterday and we were happy. He'll breeze again next week and it's looking more likely that we'll come.”

After a debut fourth sprinting in a maiden event won by Life Is Good in November at Del Mar, Roman Centurian stretched out to 1 1/16-miles for his second-out graduation on Jan. 3 at Santa Anita. He exited that effort to finish a good second in the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis at Santa Anita, rallying from last-of-6 to miss by a neck to Medina Spirit in the 1 1/16-mile test.

Roman Centurian is currently 33rd on the Kentucky Derby leaderboard with 9 points. Callaghan said a trip to New York for the Wood Memorial, which offers 100-40-20-10 points to the top-four finishers, will suit the improving horse more than a return engagement with Life Is Good in the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby on April 3.

“Life is Good is looking like a pretty formidable horse right now and I think that the track at Aqueduct will be more to his liking,” said Callaghan. “We've always liked him. He made good progress from his maiden win to running a close second to Medina Spirit.

“I don't think the race set up very well for him last time,” added Callaghan. “We're hoping that with another race under his belt and moving to a track that we think will be more to his liking, that we'll see a good performance to move him forward.”

The Callaghan-trained Firing Line, who was also a runner-up in the Robert B. Lewis, finished second in the 2015 Kentucky Derby. The veteran conditioner, a native of Great Britain who set up his stable in Southern California in 2009, said Roman Centurian should appreciate the added distance in the nine-furlong Wood Memorial.

“He's a big, scopey two-turn kind of horse,” said Callaghan. “I think he's got some progression in him. He's a nice framed horse who is going to strengthen as the year goes on. We're hoping we can have a good 3-year-old year with him.”

A winner with 2-of-3 starters at the Big A, Callaghan scored with Taris in the 2015 Grade 3 Go for Wand and with Out of The Flames in the 2018 Mizdirection. He sent out Americanize to finish fourth in the 2017 Grade 1 Cigar Mile.

Callaghan said a local rider is likely to pick up the Wood mount aboard Roman Centurian.

A probable list of Wood Memorial contenders includes Brooklyn Strong (Daniel Velazquez), Crowded Trade (Chad Brown), Dynamic One (Todd Pletcher), Nicky the Vest (Jonathan Thomas), Overtook (Pletcher), Risk Taking (Brown), and Weyburn (Jimmy Jerkens). Also under consideration are Prevalence (Brendan Walsh) and Rombauer (Michael McCarthy).

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“She's been training very forwardly,” said Simon Callaghan, who conditions the 5-year-old chestnut for the Don Alberto Stable. “I've had her for three or four months. The owners thought she would like the firm turf in California, which is why they sent her here.

“Hopefully she can add to her resume.”

Brooke will once again be ridden by jockey Jeremy Laprida, who has been aboard in each of her eight career starts, including her most recent, a ninth-place finish in a field of 17 on a heavy turf course at one mile in Argentina's Group 2 Longines Cup last March 20.

“He's ridden her in Chile and the owners wanted him for her first race here,” Callaghan said of Laprida, who has ridden in the U.S. at Parx Racing in Bensalem, Pa., 19 miles northeast of Philadelphia.

Megahertz was a diminutive chestnut mare bred in England who gained popularity with racing fans thanks her small size and big stretch runs against top company.

Trained by the late Bobby Frankel for owner Michael Bello, Megahertz was a multiple graded stakes winner on turf compiling a 14-6-5 record from 34 starts, earning $2,261,594.

The Megahertz is for fillies and mares four and up at one mile on turf. It is race seven of nine with a 12:30 p.m. Pacific first post time.

The field: Brooke, Jeremy Laprida, 4-1; $2,000 supplemental nominee Colonial Creed, Flavien Prat, 7-2; $2,000 supplemental nominee Lucky Peridot, Abel Cedillo, 8-1; Mucho Unusual, Joel Rosario, 9-5; Hippodamia's Girl, Juan Hernandez, 8-1; andSedamar, Umberto Rispoli, 5-2.

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