Elate Ready to Get Season Started in Delaware Handicap
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Photo: Dave Harmon
Elate gallops at Del Mar
The buzz that precedes most major racing events had plenty of places to land the week of the 2017 Breeders' Cup World Championships at Del Mar.
There was Arrogate , the sport's all-time leading money earner, trying to cap his career on a high note. There was Gun Runner , his chestnut rival, looking every bit like the Horse of the Year he would become. There were precocious juveniles trying to show talent beyond their years. And yet, it was the dark bay filly from the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott who managed to horde the majority of the pre-race hype.
Everything about Elate's preparation heading into last year's Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) was viewed as a tout. She was coming off consecutive grade 1 wins in blowout fashion and earning A+ reviews from clockers tracking her morning training. She went off as the favorite in a field with two established champions and two eventual year-end honorees, but when it came time to throw the hammer down, the daughter of Medaglia d'Oro left her connections puzzled as she crossed the wire fourth, never seriously threatening along the way.
"She almost won three grade 1s in a row," said Walker Hancock of Claiborne Farm, which bred and co-owns Elate along with Adele Dilschneider. "She got nosed out by Abel Tasman in I guess what you could say was a controversial Coaching Club American Oaks, and came back and ran huge in the Alabama, and then followed that effort up with arguably her best race of the year in the Beldame. I guess if you look back on it, maybe she was a little gutted from those three big performances in a row. I don't know.
"There are a bunch of variables you could maybe point to, but you know at the end of the day … she had a big end to her 3-year-old year, and hopefully she'll find her form and carry it forward this year."
An intended freshening was unexpectedly extended when Elate was hindered with a splint bone issue this winter. Finally ready to make her 4-year-old debut, the multiple grade 1 winner will start her 2018 campaign at the track that kicked off her stellar second-half run last year when she faces eight challengers July 14 in the $750,000 Delaware Handicap (G2) at Delaware Park.
Regard had been high for Elate since she broke her maiden first out at Aqueduct Racetrack in November 2016, but it wasn't until she went to Delaware last summer that the light bulb came on and turned white hot. After capturing the Light Hearted Stakes there by 5 1/2 lengths in June, she had many believing her to be the best dirt filly in the country with a series of outs that included a head loss to eventual champion Abel Tasman in the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1)—one that elicited an inquiry after some alleged contact in late stretch—followed by clear victories in the Alabama Stakes (G1) and Beldame Stakes (G1).
That Elate marched into Del Mar with expectations that she would make balloting for divisional honors a formality was itself a remarkable comeback from her spring form. In her third start of the year and first grade 1 try, she was pulled up and vanned off in the Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) at Keeneland but was found to be OK physically in the aftermath.
"I remember after the Ashland when we were scratching our heads wondering if she was all right, (assistant trainer) Riley (Mott) saying, 'She's still going to win the Alabama,'" Hancock said. "So we knew they liked her. It was just a matter of time. She's a big filly, maybe she just took her time to grow into herself and come into herself. Maybe she just needed the confidence that she got in Delaware last year to get going."
Since getting over the splint bone issue, Elate has been working steadily since May 9, turning in nine timed moves at Saratoga Race Course—the site of her next big target should all go as hoped this weekend.
"Obviously, the Breeders' Cup Distaff is the year-end goal, but we've marked the (grade 1) Personal Ensign as being a main goal this year, too," Hancock said, referencing the race named for the Phipps family's unbeaten champion. "(That race) is special to us, so it would be nice to win. That's the next logical spot assuming she runs well."
Elate will have to be on her game right out of the gate if she intends to get her 4-year-old campaign off to a victorious note.
Red Oak Stable's homebred Unbridled Mo has already played dragon slayer once this season. The Todd Pletcher-trained daughter of Uncle Mo defeated champion Unique Bella in the April 13 Apple Blossom Handicap (G1) at Oaklawn Park, cementing the ability she teased of when she won two grade 3 contests to close out her 2017 campaign.
Unbridled Mo enters the Delaware Handicap off a third-place finish to Abel Tasman in the June 9 Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1) at Belmont Park and will be stretching out to 1 1/4 miles for the first time Saturday.
Paul Reddam's graded stakes winner Mopotism is in from California for trainer Doug O'Neill after recently finishing third in the June 16 Fleur de Lis Handicap (G2) at Churchill Downs. The daughter of Uncle Mo opened her season with a win in the La Canada Stakes (G2) in January, an effort that snapped an eight-race losing skid for the bay filly.
"We were kind of hoping for a smaller field, but they all showed up to take her on," Hancock said of Elate. "She's actually going to have to be the best in order to win on Saturday."
Delaware Park, Saturday, July 14, 2018, Race 9Entries: Delaware H. (G2)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
1Teresa Z (KY)
Daniel Centeno
116
Anthony R. Margotta, Jr.
10/1
2
2Sneaky Betty (KY)
Jomar Torres
112
Claudio A. Gonzalez
20/1
3
3Mopotism (KY)
Mario Gutierrez
117
Doug F. O'Neill
9/2
4
4Proper Discretion (OH)
Agustin Bracho
113
Anthony T. Quartarolo
20/1
5
5Unbridled Mo (KY)
John R. Velazquez
120
Todd A. Pletcher
5/2
6
6Elate (KY)
Jose L. Ortiz
117
William I. Mott
2/1
7
7Farrell (KY)
Channing Hill
118
Wayne M. Catalano
9/2
8
8Nikki My Darling (OH)
Scott Spieth
113
Anthony T. Quartarolo
20/1
9
9Fuhriously Kissed (KY)
Jose A. Bracho
113
Anthony T. Quartarolo
15/1
