Bill Mott

SARATOGA SPRINGS - As Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott watched Sovereignty (Into Mischief) gobble up ground on the Oklahoma Training Track from afar Saturday morning, his mind drifted back to maybe the best horse he ever trained. Sovereignty, working for the first time since winning the GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga on July 26, went four furlongs in :48.99 (117/65) and galloped out in 1:02 2/5. Assistant trainer Neil Poznansky was on board. Mott had accompanied Sovereignty to the Oklahoma aboard his pony, Rocky. "Coming to the wire,...

9th-Saratoga, $110,000, Alw (NW1$X)/Opt. Clm ($100,000), 8-7, 3yo, 1mT, 1:35.03, fm, 3/4 length. STARS AND STRIDES (c, 3, American Pharoah--Holiday Blues, by Ghostzapper) debuted a winner by a head over a sloppy track at the Spa June 7, then was well-beaten behind Rookie Card (Adios Charlie) when he caught a fast main in an allowance race upstate July 19. Trying turf and off as a 9-1 shot here, the colt was up on the pace in the early stages before being taken back into the second flight before the first...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- There have been some days for trainer Chad Brown. Some real big days. Remember Arlington Million day in 2019? He won all four graded stakes races, including all three GI races. He has won a bushel full of Breeders' Cup races in his career; more than once he has had multiple winners. Brown has a pair of GI Preakness Stakes on his resume. What happened Saturday might just trump them all. At his hometown track, Brown blitzed his competition, winning four races, capped off by the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Two years ago, the GI Whitney Stakes was a whiteout. As in White Abarrio (Race Day), who crushed the field by 6 1/4 lengths. Fast forward to now and White Abarrio is back for another run in Saturday's $1 million Whitney, the premier race for older horses at the 40-day meet at Saratoga Race Course. The 6-year-old horse will look to shrug off a disappointing fourth place finish in the GI Met Mile last month and prove to his trainer Saffie Joseph Jr. that he deserves...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was a low-key celebration for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott Saturday night after Sovereignty (Into Mischief) continued his stampede through the 3-year-old male division. "Put a couple hamburgers on the grill," Mott said, sitting at his desk in his office at the Oklahoma Training Track on a soggy Sunday morning at Saratoga. "Good hamburgers, by the way. They were from Fresh Market. That was it. Then early to bed." When Mott got his barn Sunday morning, he looked down his shedrow and saw the...

Even though Nysos (Nyquist) was 1-10 on the board, Saturday's GII San Diego Handicap was a race he didn't have to win. He sprinted in his last two starts and had never been the distance of a mile-and-a-sixteenth. He also has a couple of large gaps in his form, suggesting that trainer Bob Baffert was having a hard time keeping him together. None of that mattered in the San Diego. Flavin Prat, who flew in from Saratoga for the ride, rode a patient race and saved ground into the second...

Ninety-five years ago, a horse named Jim Dandy upset Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox at odds of 100-1 in the GI Travers Stakes at Saratoga. Saturday, with the traditional Travers prep race now named in honor of that monumental beating, the team behind GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes winner Sovereignty (Into Mischief) reminded everyone why their colt is the top of the class, avoiding any drama to take the GII Jim Dandy Stakes. Not that there was ever any doubt. With GI Preakness Stakes winner Journalism (Curlin) 3,000...

Despite the fact that Journalism (Curlin) became the first of his generation to earn as many as three elite-level victories with his thrilling success in the GI NYRABets Haskell Stakes last weekend, Godolphin's Sovereignty (Into Mischief) remains at the head of this year's sophomore class by virtue of convincing head-to-head tallies in the GI Kentucky Derby on May 3 and when last seen in the GI Belmont Stakes right here at Saratoga on June 7. But the argument can be made that Saturday's GII Jim Dandy Stakes at the Spa...

A winner of two of his three starts at distances up to a mile, Juddmonte homebred Garamond (Uncle Mo) will try to atone for a disappointing effort when heavily favored in the NYRA Bets Pegasus Stakes in Friday's GII Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga. A popular debut winner going Friday's 6 1/2-furlong distance at Tampa back in late January, Garamond was a very sound third to Flood Zone (Frosted) making his stakes debut in the GIII Gotham Stakes going the one-turn eight-furlong configuration at Aqueduct Mar. 1. The bay colt set...

The late-striding Journalism (Curlin) is developing a knack for snatching Grade I victories from the jaws of defeat, but he has yet to be able to solve the riddle known as Sovereignty (Into Mischief). On Saturday at Monmouth Park, this athletic colt did his part to edge us closer to a possible Round 3 rematch of the top two finishers of the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes. But on Sunday, with Journalism shipping back to California, the colt's connections made no commitment either way about renewing their rivalry...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--The work is done. Now, Sovereignty (Into Mischief) waits for the $500,000 GII Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga Race Course next Saturday. Winner of the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes, Sovereignty's connections are confident he is ready to make his first start since that Triple Crown campaign. Saturday, morning at 7:30, Sovereignty had his final work for the Jim Dandy--and third since the Belmont--going four furlongs in 49.82 (12/41) under Neil Poznansky, the assistant to Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Sovereignty worked by himself; in...

8th-Saratoga, $110,000, Alw, 7-17, (NW1$X), 3yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:51.22, ft, 7 1/4 lengths. STARS AND STRIPES (c, 3, Not This Time--Pearl River, by Quality Road) went off at odds of 31-1 in his debut at Aqueduct May 17 and, though he wound up third, impressed with a 92 Beyer Speed Figure. Slammed down into favoritism to break his maiden going this distance at Aqueduct on a sloppy track June 15, he responded with a resounding 10 1/2-length win. Facing winners for the first time Thursday at Saratoga, the 4-5 favorite...