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Mott Makes 70th Birthday A Winning One

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Arriving just in time at the wire, Elite Power (Curlin) added to Bill Mott's massive resume of Grade I triumphs Saturday and yet another birthday victory to his remarkable total at Saratoga Race Course.

With his thrilling come-from-behind score by a head over Gunite (Gun Runner) Saturday in the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H., the 4-year-old Juddmonte colt provided the Hall of Famer with a very nice present on his 70th birthday. By extending his winning streak to eight, Elite Power gave Mott his 24th Saratoga victory on his birthday. Since the birthday countdown started in 1992, Mott has had at least one winner in 18 of the 27 years there has been racing at Saratoga on July 29.

“It's been a productive date up until this point,” Mott said with a smile.

Elite Power was the last of Mott's six starters on the Saturday program affected by rain. By the time the Vanderbilt was run at 4:45 p.m., the main track was sealed and listed as sloppy and turf racing had been curtailed. In his first try on a wet track, Elite Power was able to collar and get his head in front of Gunite just before the wire.

After taking part in the winner's circle photograph, Tina Mott said her husband is well aware of the Saratoga birthday angle that came life when he won with his first three starters on his 39th birthday.

“I razz him about it,” she said. “Like, 'Oh, it's your birthday. You have to win a race.'”

Mott's last winner on his birthday was in 2018 and Tina Mott said he joked about it. He was 0-for-5 since Length (War Front) won a maiden special weight race on his 65th birthday.

“He's like 'all the pressure's off now,'” she said. “But he likes to always win at least one on his birthday.”

According to Equibase, Mott entered this season at Saratoga with 464 victories, 91 of them in stakes. Elite Power was his fifth winner so far and third in a stake. Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed) started the stakes run this summer in the GIII Kelso S. and Scotland (Good Magic) got to the wire first in the Curlin S..

Mott saddled his first horse at Saratoga Race Course in 1984 but did not have a starter on his birthday until 1992 when he won the fourth with Missed the Storm, the fifth with Richman and the sixth with Patriot Strike. In the eighth, Tourney finished second by a head to Distinct Habit in the GIII Schuylerville S. Missed the Storm returned the next year to win the GI Test S., which was run two days after his birthday

Following his breakout birthday year, Mott won with three of five starters. He had one winner in 1994, two in 1995. Since then, he has been 0-for-the-29th eight times. In 2015, he did not have a starter on the program. On his birthday, Mott is 24 of 86, a 27.9 winning percentage. Among the wins are the 2000 Test with Dream Supreme (Seeking the Gold) and the 2006 GI Diana S. with Angara (GB) (Alzao).

Mott said he figured that his lineup on Saturday might produce another birthday win.

“I really thought I was in with some good chances, starting out in the second race and we finished second with [High Oak (Gormley)] the longest odds we had on the board. I thought we were in with the chance with a couple horses particularly there, particularly with this horse and then we've scratched the filly [Spungie (Hard Spun)] in the [ninth] race. They're off the turf. So I thought we had some chances. You Look Cold [Frosted] finish third [in the fifth]. She ran well. She gave a good effort. The main thing is that they all run well. The birthday thing, winning on your birthday is fun, but the most important thing is that we generate Grade I winners for a major stable like this horse did today. That's what it's really all about. It's about winning, winning the major races and horses like this going to the stud barn.”

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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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Elite Power And Cody’s Wish Breeze At Saratoga For Mott

Juddmonte's GISW Elite Power (Curlin) and MGISW Cody's Wish (Curlin) both worked for trainer Bill Mott over the Oklahoma training track at Saratoga this past week.

Elite Power went three-eighths in 36.02 on Saturday, June 24 in his first breeze since his 1 3/4-length score in the GII True North S. on Belmont Stakes Day. The 5-year-old chestnut is targeting Saratoga's GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt H. on July 29.

“He worked fine. We'll run in the Vanderbilt,” the Hall of Fame trainer said.

Mott indicated that Elite Power's main year-end goal is likely a title defense in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Also a 5-year-old, Cody's Wish covered a half-mile in 48.48 seconds on Monday, June 26 in his first breeze back since winning the GI Metropolitan H. on June 10 at Belmont Park.

“It was a nice breeze, very smooth,” Mott said.

Winner in 9-of-13 starts, Cody's Wish remains under consideration for Saratoga's GI Whitney H. on Aug. 5 that offers a “Win and You're In” berth to the GI Breeders' Cup Classic.

“That's possible,” Mott said of the Whitney. “It's [nine furlongs] always a question. He's won his Breeders' Cup going a two turn-mile, but he's not won at a mile and an eighth. You never know until they do it.”

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Asmussen Bearing Down on Number 10,000

Already the winningest trainer in the history of North American racing, Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen is close to another milestone, his 10,000th career win.

Asmussen entered Thursday with 9,997 wins and had only one starter on the day, Flute Master (Gun Runner) in a maiden special weight race at Turfway Park.

After a quiet day for the barn, Asmussen's stable will go into overdrive on Friday. He has 13 horses entered in 11 races. His day will begin at Oaklawn Park, where he has entries in seven races. He has three horses entered at the Fair Grounds, two at Sam Houston and one at Turfway Park.

If he doesn't reach 10,000 on Friday he'll be back at it on Saturday. Asmussen has entered 26 horses in 19 races carded for Saturday. He has eight entrants at Oaklawn, eight at Sam Houston, nine at the Fair Grounds and one at Turfway Park. Asmussen's Saturday entries include three horses entered in the GII Risen Star S. at the Fair Grounds, Harlocap (Justify), Silver Heist (Tapit) and Private Creed (Jimmy Creed).

After he reaches the 10,000 mark, the next target for Asmussen could be Peruvian trainer Juan Suarez, the winningest trainer worldwide. Through Feb. 15, Suarez had 10,333 wins.

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