Making the Grade: Mo Tom

Mo Tom made a statement on the Derby trail when winning the Lecomte Stakes. (Photos by Lou Hodges)
Making the Grade, which will run through the 2016 Belmont Stakes, focuses on the winners of the big races, usually from the previous weekend, who could impact the next Triple Crown. We’ll be taking a close look at impressive winners and evaluating their chances to win classic races based upon ability, running style, connections (owner, trainer, jockey) and pedigree.
This week we take a closer look at Mo Tom, winner of the $200,000 Lecomte Stakes on Jan. 16 at Fair Grounds.

Mo Tom

Dark Bay or Brown Colt
Sire (Father): Uncle Mo
Dam (Mother): Caroni, by Rubiano
Owner: G M B Racing
Breeder: Hargus & Sandra Sexton & Silver Fern Farm (Ky.)
Trainer: Tom Amoss

Mo Tom lived up to his billing as the favorite for the Lecomte Stakes, charging clear in the stretch to win by 2 ¼ lengths in his 3-year-old debut. After flashing talent at two, Mo Tom earned his first career graded stakes win in the Lecomte and 10 points (for 12 points in total) on the Road to the Kentucky Derby leaderboard. Let’s take a closer look at his chances to make some noise on the Triple Crown trail.
Ability: A $150,000 purchase by owner G M B Racing out of the 2014 Keeneland September yearling sale, Mo Tom won his debut going three-quarters of a mile at Ellis Park on Sept. 5, 2015. He earned a rather uninspiring 64 Equibase Speed Figure but improved to an 84 when third at Keeneland Race Course in an early October allowance race. Trainer Tom Amoss opted to test Mo Tom in a stakes race four weeks later and Mo Tom aced the exam with a clear win from off the pace in the one-mile Street Sense Stakes at Churchill Downs. He again showed improvement, jumping to a 96 Equibase Speed Figure, which he more or less matched (a two-point jump to 98) in his final start at two when third in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. The 99 Equibase Speed Figure he earned for winning the Lecomte might seem to indicate that Mo Tom has plateaued a bit, but my eyes saw the race a bit differently. I saw a colt comfortable running behind horses and getting some dirt kicked in his face, capable of using his speed for a big move and more professional in the stretch than he had been in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes. Mo Tom looked like he had plenty left in the tank despite making a huge rally on the turn to close from next to last into striking distance under jockey Corey Lanerie. Trainer Tom Amoss has called Mo Tom a “work in progress,” and it’s pretty clear what we saw in the Lecomte was a significantly more mature Mo Tom. He’s still learning but when he figures it all out, watch out.
MO TOM BEFORE THE LECOMTE

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
Running style: This has been an interesting Triple Crown (early) season in that almost every runner I’ve profiled so far prefers to race just off the pace, using the stalk and pounce near the top of the stretch tactics that so often are effective in Kentucky Derby prep races. Not Mo Tom. Here we have a deep closer - a runner who likes to drop well back and gallop along comfortably early before earning his money in the final three-eighths of a mile with a powerful late burst. I’m a sucker for a deep closer and I really like what I’ve seen from Mo Tom. He looked a little lost when on the rail on a sloppy track in the Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes  - sensory overload, perhaps, but talented enough to finish just a head behind Mor Spirit, who subsequently won the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity. In the Lecomte, he appeared to identify his target in the stretch and shift gears to take command.
Connections: G M B Racing is the racing operation of Gayle M. Benson, wife of New Orleans Saints (National Football League) and New Orleans Pelicans (National Basketball Association) owner Tom Benson. Gayle Benson is an accomplished interior designer and fashion designer and serves on the board for Tulane University. Mo Tom is G M B Racing’s first graded stakes winner.
Trainer Tom Amoss has consistently ranked among the top 40 trainers in North America by wins and purse earnings since 2000, finishing in the top ten by wins in 2011, 2013 and 2014. His best finish in a U.S. Triple Crown race came with Mylute, who finished third in the 2013 Preakness Stakes. Mylute also ran fifth that year in the Kentucky Derby, which is Amoss’s best finish with four Derby runners. A graduate of Louisiana State University, Amoss got his start working for Hall of Famer Jack Van Berg and has amassed 2,270 victories, including 298 stakes wins, through Jan. 19 since taking out his trainer’s license in 1987. Amoss also works as a television analyst for TVG.

Corey Lanerie has ridden Mo Tom for his last four starts. A winner of more than 3,880 career races, including 228 stakes wins, since talking out his jockey’s license in 1991, Lanerie’s only Kentucky Derby starter to date was Harry’s Holiday, who finished 16th in 2014. 

Previous Making the Grades
Nyquist
Exaggerator
Mohaymen
Airoforce
Mor Spirit
Flexibility
Collected

Pedigree: Mo Tom’s sire (father), Uncle Mo, was absolutely dazzling as a 2-year-old when he won his three races by a combined margin of 23 ¼ lengths, capped by a 4 ¼-length runaway in the 2010 Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. By just about every speed figure maker out there, Uncle Mo was rated as a brilliantly fast 2-year-old and an argument could easily be made that he’s the fastest juvenile of the last decade. Uncle Mo was not a 1 ¼-mile racehorse and thus did not enjoy success on the Triple Crown trail, but he did win two of five starts at three and only once in his career, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, did Uncle Mo finish out of the top three. He put on a display in the Grade 2 Kelso Handicap at a mile during his 3-year-old season, winning by three lengths in a blistering 1:33.82. Uncle Mo never lost at a mile or 1 1/16 and only lost one race, by a nose in the seven-eighths of a mile King’s Bishop Stakes, that was 1 1/16 miles or less. It’s often said milers make the best sires and Uncle Mo was freakish at those types of races.
Uncle Mo is also off to a very nice start as a sire. Mo Tom is part of a first crop of runners that include undefeated champion 2-year-old male Nyquist, Grade 1 winner Gomo and Grade 1-placed graded stakes winner Uncle Vinny among seven stakes winners to date.
Ideally, you’d like to see some stamina from the maternal half of Mo Tom’s pedigree, but none of his first three dams (mother, maternal grandmother, maternal great-grandmother) won a race.
His dam Caroni, by 1992 champion sprinter Rubiano, produced Grade 1 winner Beautician, the runner-up in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies; and Bella Castani, a stakes winner going a mile.
Caroni is a half-sister (same dam, different sire) to multiple graded stakes-winning sprinter Kashatreya. Digging a little deeper into the bottom half of this pedigree reveals a few more interesting names, such as Grade or Group 1 winners Taisez Vous and Bint Pasha, 2004 Wood Memorial Stakes runner-up Master David and Argentine champion stayer Snappy John.
Mo Tom is an improving, maturing prospect from an exciting young sire. There are some legitimate distance concerns here, which could be eased a bit by the fact that Mo Tom gallops along easily in the early stages of his races and uses his speed for one late, sustained burst. I’m not sure 1 ¼ miles is an ideal distance for him, but it really isn’t an optimal distance for most runners of this generation. He still needs to run faster to join the elite group of this class, but I think Mo Tom is poised to take the next step.