Despite Losing Many Stars, Mott's Stable Remains a Force at Saratoga

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Ten days before the start of the Saratoga season, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was typically optimistic and realistic about how his stable might follow yet another solid summer at the Spa.

Long a force at Saratoga, where he has won or shared nine titles, Mott was without most of the heavy hitters from the lineup that carried him to an Eclipse Award:

– Horse of the Year and champion Cody's Wish (Curlin), third in the GI Whitney in the experiment at 1 1/8 miles, was retired.
– Champion Elite Power (Curlin), winner of the GI Alfred G. Vanderbilt, was retired.
– Champion Just FYI (Justify), who broke her maiden at Saratoga, was getting some time off at the farm.
– GII Wood Memorial winner Resilience (Into Mischief), sixth in his 2023 debut at Saratoga, who was sixth in the GI Kentucky Derby and 10th in the GI Belmont Stakes, was also out of training at a farm.
– Veteran Channel Maker (English Channel), winner of the GII Bowling Green, was retired.

A week later, Mott lost another veteran star, Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed), who was sent off to retirement. Casa Creed won the GIII Kelso and the GI Fourstardave in 2023.

“We're rebuilding this year,” Mott said on that morning in early July. “We're looking for some new guys. We need some new faces and hopefully some of the 2-year-olds turn out and maybe some of the 3-year-olds from last year are going to show up.”

As rebuilds go, this one has been sprinter-quality quick. Through the midpoint of the season Wednesday, Mott had 12 wins from 50 starts and earnings of $1,587,654. He picked up another third with his lone starter on Thursday. He is tied for third in victories with Todd Pletcher and is second to Chad Brown in purse money earned. His 56 percent in-the-money rate is second only to Brad Cox's 60.7 among the top 10 on the earnings table. Last year, he won 17 of 119 starts and earned $2,805,937.

Mott said that he understood that he faced the task of restocking a deep and talented roster.

“I knew that was coming,” he said. “I saw it coming last year. It's not like it snuck up on me. I was well aware of it. It's hard to replace some of those horses we had. They were older horses that had won Breeders' Cups, and we got them back for another year. And they won another Breeders' Cup. It's hard to come up with those horses for one year, much less to be lucky enough to have them two years.”

Arthur's Ride | Sarah Andrew

In August, the Mott barn has been white hot with a record of 6-5-3 in 14 starts at four tracks across the country.

The biggest victory of this Saratoga season was by Arthur's Ride (Tapit) in the GI Whitney Stakes on Aug. 3 in his first try in a stakes. With a dozen different winners–Scotland (Good Magic) is the only one who won for Mott in 2023–and three stakes victories, Mott gave his stable a solid grade at Saratoga.

“I'd say, excellent so far,” he said. “Up to this point, we're very fortunate. They've been running good. We've been in some spots that the horses have run well. They've fit. I was lucky enough to have Arthur's Ride ready to go. That was huge having him winning that race. For everybody. Huge for Arthur's ride and the connections.”

Mott picked up a pair of decisive firsts Wednesday, which pushed his win total at Saratoga to 497, second to Pletcher's 714 and just ahead of Brown's 493.

Equibase stats show that Mott made his first foray to Saratoga in 1984 with three seconds in seven starts. He was winless again as a shipper in 1985, but was second in all four starts. In 1992, Mott tied for the meet title with D. Wayne Lukas with 14 wins. It was first of the 30 years that he has won at least 10 races at Saratoga. He also won the training title in 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and once more in 2007 with a personal-best 27 victories.

While Mott is a major player at all of the high-level meets he competes in, he no longer carries the number of horses needed to vie with Brown and Pletcher for championships. He is planning to go after a some more Grade I Saratoga scores–his first Whitney success was his 28th overall–with 10-time graded stakes winner War Like Goddess (English Channel) in the Flower Bowl and GIII Ohio Derby winner Batten Down (Tapit) in the Travers.

Junior Alvarado | Sarah Andrew

Veteran jockey Junior Alvarado is Mott's go-to rider and has been up for eight of his wins this summer. Alvarado said there was some question about how the stable would fare this year with the departure of so many standouts.

“We were worried because there were a lot of horses–Elite Power, Cody's Wish–that were going away,” he said. “We knew we had to replace them and now it is mid-year and there are a couple horses showing up and we hope it puts us into a good spot at the end of the year. And we are hoping for some of the babies to start waking up.”

Through Thursday Mott has saddled 16 2-year-olds at the meet and has a record of 2-2-2.

“He has a lot of good babies here,” Alvarado said. “They're just a little behind mentally and late-developing horses. I think that's what Bill's best for. He gives them time, and they eventually come around as good as they can be.”

Mott, 71, a member of the Hall of Fame since 1998, uses a patient approach to improve and grow the many types of horses that come into his barn.

“He lets them find themselves,” Alvarado said. “That's what he's known for and that's why his horses really develop into nice horses and they are very good later on.”

Mott said he is dealing with what he said was “a little virus” in his stable that may have an impact on some 2-year-olds starting in the coming weeks.

Looking toward the second half of the meet for his stable, Mott is typically optimistic and realistic.

“It's day to day,” he said. “We're lucky to have some more horses to run, and hopefully we can make them fit in.”