Bill Mott

10th-KD, $150K, Msw, 2yo, 1mT, 6:28 p.m. The European-style grass course situated on the Kentucky side of the southern border with Tennessee cards a maiden finale which draws $450,000 Keeneland September graduate from last year, PUBLIUS (Constitution). Bred by Twin Creeks Farm, the bay colt debuts out of Sharp Instinct (Awesome Again), who is the dam of seven winners from nine to race. The Brad Cox trainee, ridden by Florent Geroux, is a half-brother to GIII Excelsior S. hero Send It In (Big Brown). Also entered is the well-bred Tapitoro...

A field of eight juveniles will head postward in the 1 1/16-mile GIII With Anticipation S. over the lawn at Saratoga Thursday. West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey's Carson's Run (Cupid) is already a winner over the course and trip where he broke his maiden by a late-running neck July 29. Carson's Run has worked back three times since his victory, most recently covering five furlongs in 1:03.25 (3/4) over the Oklahoma turf training track last Thursday. "He had a good work on the grass the other day. He's trained...

It took every inch of the stretch for Just F Y I (Justify) to get past the well-regarded Shop Lifting (Into Mischief) in Saturday's sixth race at Saratoga, but a jump before the wire she poked her head in front, earning a victory that had her connections bullish on her future. The six-furlong maiden special weight race with a purse of $136,000 went in 1:11.06 and Just F Y I, who is trained by Bill Mott, paid $9.50. The winning margin was a head. "As her training progressed Bill became...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--On the subject of the resilience of 9-year-old Channel Maker (English Channel) approaching his sixth-consecutive start in the GI Sword Dancer S. Saturday, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott made his point in a few words. "I can't say enough," he said. Mott was smiling, but he wasn't joking. "What can you say?" Mott said. "He sort of seems like an oddity in this day and age that he's able to stay around and still be in somewhat close to top form." Channel Maker has stood the tests...

NYRA's post parade program coordinator scoffed when she typed out the morning-line odds on Channel Maker (English Channel). 20-1 for the 9-year-old gelding going into the GII Bowling Green S. The Bill Mott trainee hadn't won a race in over a year and he'd finished a distant tenth in his last start in the GII Belmont Gold Cup S. But the racing pundits and handicappers didn't know what she knew: that the hard-knocking old man looked just as good, maybe even better, coming into the Bowling Green than he had...

LNJ Foxwoods' Scotland (Good Magic), last-out winner of the July 21 Curlin S., tuned up for Saturday's GI Travers S. with a four-furlong move in :47.60 (1/68) over the Oklahoma training track Sunday in Saratoga. "It was a good, useful work," said trainer Bill Mott. "He galloped out well and seemed to have good energy and to be moving well. It was fast enough. I think we're fit enough." A debut winner at Gulfstream in March, Scotland was nosed out of an allowance victory at Keeneland in April before taking...

5th-SAR, $136K, Msw, 2yo, f, 6f, 3:27 p.m. MUNNY ROCKETTE (Munnings) sold to Champion Equine for $450,000 as a yearling at last year's Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga Select Yearling Sale and went for $1-million when Donato Lanni signed the ticket for Frank Fletcher Racing Operations on the final day of this year's OBS March Sale. Trained by Bill Mott and with Junior Alvarado in the irons, the bay filly's second dam is a half sister to GI Test S. and GI Ballerina H. winner Chaposa Springs (Baldski) and GI Met...

Art Collector (Bernardini), a winner of eight stakes, including the 2023 GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational and the 2021 GI Woodward S., was euthanized Thursday in Saratoga after developing laminitis. Horse Racing Nation was first with the story. "This was sudden and a tough experience for me and my wife," said owner-breeder Bruce Lunsford. "I can summarize this pretty easily. He gave me my highest highs in this business and now my lowest low. That's as simple as I can put it. He will be in my brain and my...

6th-Saratoga, $115,000, Alw, 8-16, (NW1$X), 3yo/up, f/m, 6f, 1:09.86, ft, 5 lengths. THREE RIVERS (f, 3, American Pharoah--Flying Spur {GISP, $198,821}, by Giant's Causeway) delivered on debut with a 1 3/4-length victory downstate June 24, good for a 78 Beyer, and stayed perfect with a sharp score here. The 5-2 chance mixed it up on the front end through fractions of :22.18 and :45.29 and blasted off into the stretch to win going away by five lengths. Portage (Tonalist) was second. Mike Rutherford homebred and distant GI Kentucky Oaks third-place...

Godolphin's Cody's Wish (Curlin), third in the nine-furlong GI Whitney Aug. 5 at Saratoga, is expected to return to one-turn racing this fall at the Belmont at the Big A meet, according to Michael Banahan, Director of Bloodstock for Godolphin. A potential landing spot for the 5-year-old could be the seven-furlong GII Vosburgh S. for 3-year-olds Sept. 30, a "Win and You're In" for the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint in November at Santa Anita. Banahan indicated that the Vosburgh could also be used as a steppingstone to the GI Dirt...

The ageless Casa Creed (Jimmy Creed) became the fourth two-time winner of Saratoga's GI Fourstardave H.--a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile--with a thrilling 3/4-of-a-length victory over 'TDN Rising Star' Annapolis (War Front). The LRE Racing and JEH Racing Stable colorbearer joins the race's namesake 'The Sultan of Saratoga' Fourstardave, who won the 1990-91 renewals (previously contested as the GIII Daryl's Joy S.); two-time Horse of the Year Wise Dan, who won in consecutive years in 2012-13; and the popular racemare Got Stormy, who defeated males...

1st-SAR, $136k, Msw, 2yo, f, 1 1/16mT, 1:10 p.m. ET The Niarchos Family's Flaxman Holdings went to $1.3 million for GI Jenny Wiley S. heroine Daisy Devine (Kafwain) at the 2013 Keeneland November Sale, and her daughter CARINA NEBULA (Into Mischief) gets her first taste of the races Sunday. The versatile dam, who also won the 2011 GII Fair Grounds Oaks, is a 100% producer from five to the races, and Carina Nebula makes the trip up from Fair Hill, where she most recently breezed five furlongs over the all-weather...