Photo: NYRA, Adam Coglianese
Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott was all
smiles Sunday morning as he reported that
To Honor and Serve emerged from his
victory in the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward in excellent shape.
“He looks great,” said Mott of To
Honor and Serve, who won for the eighth time in 15 career starts, with six of
those victories coming in graded stakes. “It was nice to see him come back.”
Mott, who trains To Honor and
Serve for Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation, said the Breeders’ Cup on
November 3 at Santa Anita would be the final major objective for the 4-year-old
colt, who then will stand as a stallion at Gainesway Farm.
“Obviously, working backward, we
want to go to
California and we want to go to the Breeders’
Cup,” said Mott. “We’d have to decide whether we’d run in the [Dirt] Mile or the
Classic. I think the connections, obviously, if at all possible and if we had a
chance, would like to run in the Classic.”
While To Honor and Serve went
into the 1 1/8-mile Woodward off an eight-week freshening, Mott said he would
consider a race in between.
“Looking at the Belmont schedule
for him, maybe we’d have a look at the Kelso [Handicap, one mile, September 29],
although it’s going back from a Grade 1 to a Grade 2, and it’s a handicap, so
we’d have to see what happens with the weights,” said Mott. “It’s on the list of things to think
about.
“There’s nothing wrong with
having a little momentum, a regular schedule [going into the Breeders’ Cup],” he
said. “I mean, Cigar ran in the Woodward, the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and the
Breeders’ Cup Classic and it wasn’t too much for him. But there aren’t many
Cigars, I suppose.”
The mention of Cigar brought to
Mott’s mind another of his many champions –
Theatrical, who died Friday at
the age of 30. A winner of $2.9 million and 10 of his 22 career starts,
including six Grade 1s, Theatrical went on to sire 81 stakes winners.
“He was probably one of the best
horses I ever trained, or ever will train,” said Mott. “He was my first
champion, my first Breeders’ Cup [1987 Turf] winner. He won six Grade 1 stakes
my first year in New
York , and I trained a ton of stakes winners by him. He
bought my first home in New
York , single-handedly. He was probably the most
life-changing horse I ever had.”