Bill Mott

SARATOGA SPRINGS--Just before 8 Saturday morning, Sovereignty (Into Mischief) beat the weather. But just barely. The GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes champ got his work in before the heaviest of yet another strong Saratoga thunderstorm pelted Saratoga Race Course. With rain beginning to fall, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was able to get Sovereignty out on the Oklahoma Training Track for a five-furlong work. Ridden by his assistant Neil Poznansky and working in company with stablemate Jefferson Street (Street Sense), Sovereignty covered the distance in 1:02.18 (5/12)....

1st-SAR, $100K, Msw, 2yo, 6f, 12:35 p.m. ET. With the third highest return at the 2025 OBS Spring Sale, TAGERMEEN (Into Mischief) was taken home for $1.4-million by Mahmud Mouni after the colt fired a :9 4/5 during the under-tack show. Sent to Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen, the debuting bay is out of Silk Route (Empire Maker), who Mouni acquired for a mere $10,000 at the 2024 Keeneland November Sale. Tagermeen's extended female family includes GIII Lecomte Stakes hero Call Me Midnight (Midnight Lute) and French Group 1...

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Anyone who went by Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott's barn on the Oklahoma Training Track Friday morning did a double take. A jumbo-sized maple tree, which has stood tall for years outside Mott's office, was no more. Thanks to a violent display of weather Thursday night after Opening Day at Saratoga Race Course, the tree was uprooted and came crashing down. Part of the tree came to rest on the roof of Mott's office. Miraculously, there was no damage done to the office, which was unoccupied...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - And now for the main event. With nine days of racing already in the books--a proper warmup by any measure, topped by the GI Belmont Stakes--the 157th season of racing at Saratoga begins Thursday with a 10-race program. It is the earliest-possible start in the calendar-driven schedule for the 40-day season that closes on Labor Day Sept. 1. With one exception in 1982, in the 45 years after racing resumed at Saratoga in 1946 following World War II, Saratoga was what eventually came to be known...

4th-Saratoga, $110,000, Alw, 7-5, (NW1$X), 3yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:23.18, ft, 4 1/4 lengths. RAGTIME (f, 3, Union Rags--Burmilla {GSW, $170,285}, by Storm Cat) who was named a 'TDN Rising Star' when breaking clear to graduate by 3 3/4 lengths at first asking during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival on June 6, made her first start against winners a victorious one during Saturday's third day of the July 4th Racing Festival, shooting clear in the final eighth of a mile to take her record to two powerful wins from as many...

SARATOGA SPRINGS--When Neil Poznansky, sitting on the back of GI Kentucky Derby and GI Belmont Stakes champion Sovereignty (Into Mischief), saw jockey Junior Alvarado early Friday morning, he wore a wide smile. "How'd I do?" Poznansky said. Alvarado grinned back. No answer necessary. Sovereignty did what Poznansky, Alvarado and Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott wanted to see as he had his second work since winning the Belmont last month. Working in company with 4-year-old stablemate Jefferson Street (Street Sense), Sovereignty and Poznansky, Mott's assistant, covered four furlongs in :48.99...

SARATOGA SPRINGS--After Baeza's (McKinzie) lackluster third-place finish in the GI Belmont Stakes last month, trainer John Shirreffs wasn't convinced his horse was as bad as he showed at Saratoga Race Course. Shirreffs is keeping the faith and will ship Baeza back to Saratoga for a date in the $500,000 GII Jim Dandy on July 26. "It seems like all roads lead to Saratoga," Shirreffs said by phone from California Wednesday afternoon. "So far, it's the only race that has been under discussion with [owners] Mr. [Lee] Searing and Mr. [Robert]...

1st-Belmont The Big A, $82,450, Msw, 6-15, 3yo/up, 1 1/8m, 1:49.19, sy, 10 1/2 lengths. STARS AND STRIPES (c, 3, Not This Time--Pearl River, by Quality Road) debuted in third at long odds during the Belmont At The Big A meet May 17. Trying two turns as the 85 cents on the dollar choice here, the colt was second and continued to flank a longshot leader for much of the backstretch. Pressing the pace at the top of the stretch, Stars and Stripes took off for home and quickly opened...

Jockey Junior Alvarado joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss his win aboard Sovereignty in the GI Belmont Stakes and the long road it took to get back to the winner's circle after an injury earlier this year.

It's been a magical year so far for jockey Junior Alvarado, who rode Sovereignty (Into Mischief) to victories in the GI Kentucky Derby and the GI Belmont S. They were the first wins in the Triple Crown series for the 39-year-old native of Venezuela, but they surely won't be the last. Alvarado now rides regularly for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, whose stable is loaded with talent. But Alvarado almost missed the Derby assignment. He fractured his shoulder blade in a Mar. 23 spill at Gulfstream. He would definitely...

5. ASBURY PARK (GB), 6/6, SAR, Race 8, 1 1/16 miles (turf), VIDEO Beyer Speed Figure- 85 (c, 4, by Frankel {GB}--Limonar {Ire} by Street Cry {Ire}) O-Peter Brant and St Elias Stable. B-St Elias Stable (GB). T-Chad Brown. J-Flavien Prat. Not surprisingly, Saratoga produced all five of these maiden graduates - three on Friday. Asbury Park got his race in just before heavy rain and powered away as much the best despite a slow pace, wide trip and an 9 1/2-month layoff due to shin issues. Brant bought the...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After a post-race visit for a beer and some hors d'oeuvres at the downtown Whitman Brewing Company, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was home, conked out on the recliner. "I must have slept in the chair for an hour," Mott said. "I turned the TV on and, at the count of three, I was gone. I woke up at midnight and went to bed." And that is how Mott spent his night after his talented 3-year-old colt Sovereignty (Into Mischief) turned the 157th running of...