Mott's BC Fillies are Close to His Heart

By Lynne Snierson

Bill Mott is a real Ladies Man.

Although the three-time Eclipse Award-winning Hall of Fame trainer is perhaps most closely associated with the legendary Cigar, he has always had that je ne sais quoi with the fillies.

"I guess I've been lucky enough to get some good ones," he said.

Good is an understatement.

Of the six year-end champions Mott has tightened the girth on over the decades, three have been female. Ajina, the champion 3-year-old filly of 1997, Escena, the 1998 champion older female, and Royal Delta, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2011 and champion older female in 2012-13, account for five of the nine Eclipse Awards earned by his charges.

Moreover, Mott's five Breeders' Cup Distaff victories (Royal Delta twice, Ajina, Escena, and Unrivaled Belle) leads all trainers and he takes another shot at the race this year with five-time grade I winner Close Hatches.

Grade I winner Emollient heads to this year's Breeders' Cup with an eye on the Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT), while Mott has Puca for the Juvenile Fillies (gr. I), and Quality Rocks for the Juvenile Fillies Turf (gr. IT). Longshot Cigar Street for the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I), Seek Again and Tourist for the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT), and Bio Pro for the Turf Sprint (gr. IT) are his boys in this year's lineup.

"I've had some good fillies to work with from breeders who strive to get good fillies to race and then keep them for their broodmare band. That's where most of them have come from," Mott said.

Ajina and Escena, winners of the Distaff in 1997-1998, respectively, were multiple grade I winners bred by Allen Paulson. Delta Princess, dam of Royal Delta and also trained by Mott, and Royal Delta were bred by Saud bin Khaled's Palides Investments. Mott also conditions Royal Delta's half sister Crown Queen, who won the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (gr. IT) Oct. 11 to remain undefeated this year. She will bypass the Breeders' Cup but is expected to remain in training for 2015 for Benjamin Leon's Besilu Stables.

Emollient is a Juddmonte Farms homebred and Close Hatches also carries their pink and green colors.

"Because I've had some of the family, I do have a special affection for all of these fillies and maybe feel a little closer to them," said Mott.

Fondness aside, shared bloodlines can carry certain characteristics and recognizable tendencies which can only help in their training.

"Royal Delta's mother was quite a character. She was tough to get the saddle on in the paddock sometimes. She could be really tough about that. She had a temper and so did Royal Delta," Mott recalled. "Crown Queen isn't quite as tough as either of them. She seems easier to get along with. Delta Princess and Royal Delta had to really be handled carefully. You wanted to be able to do it without getting in a fight with them, but it couldn't be done. You didn't ever want to get in a tug of war with them because if you did, you were going to lose. They were both headstrong, like the good mares can be."

Ajina, who won seven of 17 starts and bankrolled more than $1.3 million on the track, and Escena, who earned $2.93 million from 11 victories in 29 efforts and after retirement was sold for the then record price of $3.25 million for a broodmare prospect at the 1999 January Horses of All Ages sale at Keeneland, could not have had more dissimilar personalities.

"Escena was the easiest, most honest filly in the entire world. What she lacked in talent she made up for in the way she was very genuine, very willing, easy to ride, easy to ship, and wasn't quirky. She was just the opposite of the other one," Mott reminisced. "Ajina just decided she didn't want to run sometimes. It had to be up to her. She was talented, maybe more talented than Escena, but she was very temperamental and just quirky. She won a Breeders' Cup, but you'd never know what you were going to get from her until they left the gate."

Mott said Juddmonte Farms' Close Hatches is a pleasure. The daughter of First Defence disappointed as the favorite in the Juddmonte Spinster Stakes (gr. I) Oct. 5 at Keeneland, to lose for the first time all year while competing in graded stakes, .

"She's strong to gallop, aggressive to train, but perfect around the barn," Mott said. "You can ship her anywhere, you can go to the paddock, you could drop the shank, and saddle her. She's very easy to get along with. As far as moving her around, some horses you have to worry about when you're shipping them. You have to be so very careful not to make a bad move or they'll get themselves in trouble. She's a real pro about it."

Mott, who became the second-youngest inductee into the Hall of Fame in 1998 when he was 45, has had a knack with female runners right from the beginning. His first horse, a $320 mare named My Assets whom he owned and trained, ran at unrecognized meets in South Dakota and he captured his first win at a recognized track with her at now-defunct Jefferson Park.

Then along came Mrs. Revere, who broke her maiden at first asking at the Fair Grounds in 1984 and won 11 more times. She was followed by Heatherten, winner of the 1984 Apple Blossom Handicap (gr. I) and 23 of 51 tries, and Sefa's Beauty, who found the winner's circle in 25 of 52 starts from 1982 to 1986.

"I was lucky enough in the beginning of my career to have some fillies who got me started," Mott remembered. "They were all multiple graded stakes winners."

Mott, who has divisions in New York, Kentucky and South Florida, currently has a 50-50 split between the 100 male and female horses in the barn. There is a decided approach to handling fillies and mares.

"We train them somewhat as individuals but basically we train them the same as the boys," he said. "They're on very similar schedules as the males. Maybe we lighten up on them a little bit. Of course, some of the fillies cannot carry as much weight as some of the boys. A filly like Crown Queen is not a big filly. She's very slender and has got length and a frame to her, but she doesn't carry a lot of extra flesh. So we space her works out a little bit more.

"A lot of it has to do with how well they eat, how much they eat, and how much weight they carry," he continued. "You have to do a bit more with a big old heavy colt than you do with a filly because some of the fillies stay a little bit fitter naturally."

It is one thing to get a horse of any sex to perform to his or her potential, and quite another to keep the horse in top form for the duration of a year-long campaign. Getting them to come back and remain at the same level in the following season requires extraordinary skill and talent.

"It takes a bit of planning and it takes a durable horse to do it," Mott said. "It takes them maintaining the desire to continue to do it. That's the big thing. They have to want to go out and be trained, and then want to have you take them over there. They have to want to give you everything they've got. It takes a horse with a strong constitution. I've seen a lot of horses that jumped up and ran this huge race but never reproduced it. When you get one that keeps showing up time after time after time, it's a rarity."

It can be even more unusual for a female. As longtime horsemen realize, when a filly or mare indicates that she has had enough of racing, it is foolhardy not to pay attention.

"I think that holds true in a lot of cases. Sometimes I'll give them the benefit of the doubt off one mediocre race, but when a filly throws two stinkers in a row, you really worry whether or not they're going to come back because sometimes they've just made up their mind that's it," said Mott. "I've had some that have done it. Sweet Symphony was that way. She was a very talented filly who won the (2005) Alabama, but when she decided she didn't want to do it anymore, that was it. Some of them actually train fairly well but then you don't get the same results in the afternoon."

Mott was apprehensive that Emollient might have been sending the same signals after her ninth place finish in the Beverly D. (gr. IT) at Arlington International Racecourse in August, but then she turned heads with a rebound victory in the Rodeo Drive (gr. IT) Sept. 27at Santa Anita. At the same time, she let Mott know she has an affinity for the grass course where the Filly & Mare Turf will be run.

"She was a three-time grade I winner last year and it looked like for a while that maybe she wouldn't reproduce her form, but then she did. She showed up last time, just in time, to earn herself a ticket to the Breeders' Cup," he said.

There are no such worries with Close Hatches, who started the year with a win in the Azeri Stakes (gr. II) following a long layoff and then rattled off impressive scores in the Apple Blossom, Ogden Phipps, and Personal Ensign (all grade I) before stubbing her toe in the Spinster.

"She had a little bit of a disappointing race last time, kind of a head scratcher, but we don't see any reason not to go to the Breeders' Cup," Mott said.

Although Close Hatches was unraced as a 2-year-old, Mott knew she was special right from the start.

"She was in our Kentucky division with Kenny McCarthy for the entire summer and he liked her. She was doing everything easier than everybody else. It was evident that she was a little better than the rest of the group," he said.

Should Close Hatches, who was second to eventual champion Beholder in the 2013 Breeders' Cup Distaff, win this year's Distaff, the Mott trainee figures to be likely to win divisional honors and be the sixth and latest in his remarkable and long line of female Eclipse Award winners.

Emollient and Crown Queen also have the opportunity to add to the trophy case and enhance their trainer's stellar reputation and record, while his younger Breeders' Cup contenders could be developing stars.

"Maybe we pet the fillies a little more often and feed them more peppermints. I think that's the secret to success," Mott said with a laugh.