Smooth Change Paves Art Collector's Breeders' Cup Path

While moving an older horse from one trainer's barn to another can sometimes be a tricky proposition, Art Collector  hit the ground running in his move to Hall of Famer Bill Mott this season.

That quick transition helped Art Collector put together a three-race win streak this summer and autumn to earn a spot in the $6 million Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) Nov. 6 at Del Mar.

Mott explained that owner Bruce Lunsford wanted to race Art Collector in New York this summer. After a sixth-place finish in the Kelly's Landing Stakes June 25 at Churchill Downs, the 4-year-old son of Bernardini  —Distorted Legacy, by Distorted Humor   was moved from trainer Tom Drury to Mott. After that move, Art Collector reeled off victories in the Alydar Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, the Charles Town Classic Stakes (G2), and the Woodward Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park—the first grade 1 win for the colt.

Not that Art Collector hadn't previously enjoyed success. While conditioned by Drury, he won the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2) at Keeneland and took the Runhappy Ellis Park Derby, and finished fourth in the Preakness Stakes (G1).  

"I was fortunate enough to be in New York and Bruce wanted him in New York and that's how I wound up with him," Mott said. "Tommy had the horse and did a great job with him. You can look at his form from last year and he won some very nice races with him. He gave him a great start. 

"I was just the lucky recipient of him because Bruce wanted him on the East Coast for some of those races that we ran at Saratoga and Belmont."

Mott said Drury discussed the horse with him ahead of his arrival in New York; not that there were any particular issues of concern.

"Tommy filled me in on the horse," Mott said. "We talked about it before he sent him to me; really the horse is very straightforward. He's a nice horse to train and I think (Drury) told me everything I needed to know. We just took it from there."

Mott, who will be looking for his third Breeders' Cup Classic win following scores in 1995 with Cigar and 2011 with Drosselmeyer , said some time off between the Kelly's Landing at Churchill and the Aug. 6 Alydar Stakes at Saratoga allowed Art Collector to settle into the new routine. 

The 1 1/8-mile Alydar, a listed stakes that is restricted to horses who had not won a stakes race in 2021 (other than a stakes for state-breds), offered an ideal spot for Art Collector to make his debut for Mott. 

"I suppose every trainer has certain things that they do and a certain style of training and although many of us do very similar things, I guess we tried to do what's easy and right for the horse individually," Mott said. "Sometimes the horse actually adapts to us as much as us adapting to the horse, but the horse fell right into the training regimen that we had him in and, like I said, he was ready to run when we got him. We just continued on and he's done very well."

Mott started Vision and Verse in the 1999 and 2000 Breeders' Cup Classic for owners Lunsford and Yoshiyaki Ito. Vision and Verse finished second in the 1999 Belmont Stakes (G1) and Travers Stakes (G1).

Mott trained the second dam of Art Collector, 1994 Ashland Stakes (G1) runner-up Bunting, who also was campaigned by Lunsford and some partners, later in her racing career. While Mott knows the level of competition is about to increase for Art Collector, who finished off the board in last year's Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1), he likes that his horse will enter in top form and should like the 1 1/4-mile distance.

"At the moment he looks great and he's coming off three really good races," Mott said. "We know we're stepping into deep water. We're trying a new group of horses and we know they're the very best that we're going to run up against. 

"We're adding another furlong (following the three straight wins at 1 1/8 miles) and we've got to find that out. You never know until they do it. We haven't discussed distance a lot because he hasn't been backing up in his races. He seems like he's been strong at the finish. So we're not hesitant at all about the mile and a quarter."