Eric Wing: Welcome to today’s NTRA Communications national media teleconference. A very big weekend ahead; as most of you know, Super Saturday at Belmont Park and a pretty super Saturday, in its own right, at Santa Anita Park as well. Between the two tracks, 11 Breeders Cup Challenge win-and-you’re in events, and we’ll be talking about several of them here with some of the key participants. Those races, by the way, will be well covered on radio. Mike Penna and the Horse Racing Radio Network team will have live coverage from Belmont from 3 to 6 p.m. on Sirius XM satellite radio, as will the “Down the Stretch” team with Dave Johnson and Bill Finley. Sirius XM radio also 3 to 6 p.m. for that crew, so if you can’t be out to the track, you can at least listen to all the great action.
A little later we’ll check in with trainer, Ron Ellis. He’s got three different horses pointing to big races this weekend. He’s got Include Me out in the Grade I quarter million dollars Zenyatta Stakes; Rail Trip, who’s already qualified for the—or pre-qualified for the Breeders Cup; Dirt Mile, who might try to do likewise for the Classic; he’s got Rail Trip going in the Awesome Again Grade 1 mile and an eighth $250,000. And then on Sunday he’ll send out Casino Host, already a Breeders Cup Challenge winner from the Del Mar Handicap. Sunday Casino Host will race in the Grade II $150,000 John Henry Turf Championship.
And speaking of John Henry, we’ll also chat later in the call with Hall of Fame trainer, Ron McAnally. He will send out the Argentinean star, Suggestive Boy, in the Grade 1 quarter million dollar Awesome Again Stakes in a race that will be Suggestive Boy’s first on a natural dirt surface.
First up, though, we’re delighted to have with us another Hall of Fame trainer, and that’s Bill Mott, who will have a pleasantly busy Saturday, it looks like. He’s got the duo of Ron the Greek and Flat Out in the Jockey Club Gold Cup; Royal Delta, the defending Breeders Cup Ladies Classic winner in the Beldame Invitational; and we’ll check with Bill to see—get a status update on To Honor and Serve, who I know had been tentatively pointing for the Grade 2 Kelso at a mile.
Bill, it’s Eric Wing in New York. How are you today?
Bill Mott: Hey, good Eric, thank you for having me on.
Eric Wing: Well, thanks so much for being on, Bill. And I guess just to get a little bit of housekeeping out of the way, any update on To Honor and Serve? I know you were strongly considering the Kelso but hadn’t 100% fully committed to it.
Bill Mott: Yes, right now we’re—tomorrow’s entry day, and we plan on entering. He’s doing very well. He’s had a couple breezes. He breezed yesterday and I couldn’t, you know, ask him to have gone any better. I mean, as far as the breeze goes, he obviously is coming off of a very good, hard race in the Woodward and, I was wondering if coming back in four weeks would be too much for him. And at the end of the day, I guess we’ll find that out. But he seems as though he’s doing very well and I just have taken the option to go ahead and enter and plan to run and then it’s five weeks back to the Breeders Cup Classic. So, you know, I think we’re probably leaning in the direction of the Classic and I think the connections would like to give that a chance for the year end honors. So, right now that’s what we plan to do.
Eric Wing: Bill, you raised an interesting general point about race spacing, and I know it’s always a challenge to keep any horse at the top of his or her game throughout a long campaign. With Royal Delta, she’s had two pretty tough races back-to-back with the Delaware Handicap and the Personal Ensign. How has she bounced out of those two efforts? Is she training to your satisfaction?
Bill Mott: She looks great. She’s doing well, yes. And, you know, I think it gives us five weeks and she seems to be doing well. We got beat last time and we’ve got to try to come back. We’ve got a couple more to go. So, we’ll run in the Beldame and hopefully that puts us in good position for the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic.
Jennie Rees: Yes, Bill, this is a To Honor and Serve question. Could you comment about how he seems to be doing now and his performance in the Woodward versus maybe earlier in the year with the Met Mile and the Suburban?
Bill Mott: Well, I thought he was doing very well going, you know his first race of the year was a flat mile and he won easily. And we went into the Met Mile, and I didn’t think he could be doing any better than he was that day. I give him a little excuse, we had (audio interference) and I don’t think he had the ideal trip. With that being said it wasn’t a bad race. He finished third and, you know, he was in the game, and I think it was evident that around the turn he was unable to run when he needed to run in order to be competitive in the race. Shackleford beat him on that day.
And when we came back in the Suburban, I think he was really a victim of the heat. It was 97 degrees that day and just really, I think, the heat really affected him and he really ran a lackluster race. He was fourth, beaten seven lengths or so. But that’s the reason we skipped the Whitney and we gave him a little extra time and waited until the end of August—early September, I guess it was, to—in hopes that the weather was cooling off a little bit. And we did—the weather did cool off through the course of the last two weeks of August and we had a reasonably good day on Woodward day. I guess it was 80 degrees or so, but it wasn’t—you know, a far cry from 97-100 degrees that we had to run in on Suburban.
And he seems to be doing well. I mean, he’s bounced back since then, since the Woodward, and I think part of it is because he does well in the cool weather. He feels good and eats better, and he actually seems as though he’s put on a little weight to me. In the last 10 days he looks like he’s kind of filled back out a little bit.
Jennie Rees: Are you concerned then about the Breeders Cup being in Santa Anita, where it’s been known to be, like, 100 degrees on Breeders Cup day?
Bill Mott: Right. I’ve thought about that but I can’t control the weather and the only thing I can hope for is we get out there and we have—if it’s 85 I feel fine, but if it’s 100 we probably have a problem.
Jennie Rees: (Inaudible) problem on the versatility. I mean, obviously, To Honor and Serve and Shackleford will be the focal point of the Kelso as they go at it again. So, the versatility of these two horses, it seems like one turn doesn’t matter, two turns doesn’t matter with them, you know, sprint, long.
Bill Mott: Well, I’ve always felt my horse is very affective at a one-turn mile. Shackleford beat him in the Met Mile but I felt on that particular day we didn’t have the golden trip. And to beat a horse like that, you’ve got to have the golden trip; it’s got to work out well. It didn’t—it wasn’t perfect and we got beat. Hopefully we can turn the tables on him.
Jennie Rees: And while I’m asking you about your competition, could you, with Royal Delta, talk about the rivalry she has with It’s Tricky?
Bill Mott: It’s been a good one. We beat her—as I remember, we beat her in the Alabama and Breeders Cup, and I guess we beat her the last time, although, I have to be quite impressed with It’s Tricky with the remarkable race that she ran last time after stumbling at the start. It was one of those stumbles where it could have kept her from being in the race at all, and she came on and finished well and was obviously a good competitor. So, she deserves a lot of credit. She’s a very good filly. On her day she’s the one to be reckoned with.
Danny Brewer: This is obviously a big day for you. As an old pro in the game, is it anything special to you, or just another day at the track? I mean, four horses and three big races.
Bill Mott: No, I get excited. You try to do everything, not make any mistakes, have everything lined up and ready to go with the horses, the people, and have their program in order and know what you’re going to do and try to be ready for any last minute detail that you have to attend to. And yes, I get excited and I get a little anxious. You know, sometimes you want to just get to it. And I hope all the races are back-to-back-to-back. I hope they fall one, two, three. It’s nice to stay busy on a day like that because the part that really kills you is just the sitting around and waiting. So, you know, at some point you just like to get to it. And it’s a very important day for us because you want to see the horses run well and come out of the race good and be able to go to the big day in Santa Anita.
Danny Brewer: Now, as far as the big day at Santa Anita, you’re defending champ as trainer in the Classic and the Ladies Classic. Do you think about that as Breeders Cup gets closer, or it’s just we’re focused on day-to-day and let’s take care of what we’ve got to take care of today?
Bill Mott: It’s day-to-day and take care of each individual horse, and I’m not worried about what we did last year, last year is in the past and it’s always a new challenge when you go on to a new group of horses and a new situation and a new racetrack. What you did last year is last year and you’re going for something new and different and it’s—we’ll try to do the best we can with each individual. And it’s tough enough to win one of those races, much less duplicate a pair of them, like we did last year.
Jay Privman: Hey, Bill, I was wonder, in light of the fact that last year you shipped in fairly early to Churchill Downs to train for the Breeders Cup, if you’ve given any thought to how you might approach this year’s Breeders Cup out here.
Bill Mott: Well, probably the way we have in the past, the last time we were there we shipped in five days before. We did our final works at our home track. Most of them were at Belmont and then shipped in there late. And we had a fairly good Breeders Cup and I guess we were second with Courageous Cat in the Mile, and I was very happy with the way all the horses went to the paddock. I thought everything went good. We didn’t win any of those races, but I thought my horses performed well and I was happy enough with the way they were doing going into it. It’s either go then, I think, or go the day after they run in New York on Saturday, and I’m not prepared to do that.
Geoffrey Riddle: Good morning. I was fortunate enough to see Royal Delta in Dubai. She’s not a very big horse, but she—I mean, she did on the race track a lot this year (inaudible). Can you tell me a bit about her constitution?
Bill Mott: Well, I think she’s a very tough mare. She’s probably one of the horses in the barn that has the best appetite. I mean, she eats as much as any horse in the barn and seems to always be aggressive and ready to train. So, she’s very willing and she has a pretty tough constitution. She can get a little excited, which I think is sometimes a little typical of the Empire Makers. She can get a little wound up and a little racy and a little excited at times, but with that being said she’s also got a lot of—she’s been a very tough horse, up until this point.
Geoffrey Riddle: Yes, I mean, not—you had quite a lot—I can’t tell (inaudible) one, two, three, four, five—seven times or something, but you gave her a break this year after Dubai. Was that intentional, or was that…
Bill Mott: After Dubai? Well, I think it was only probably not much more than 60 days. When she came back from Dubai, she seemed to be doing well. But we typically like to give them a little time after that trip. I think that they can come back from Dubai, but I don’t think you’d want to rush them back into it—into a race three or four weeks after they get back. I think you’ve got to give them a little more chance than that.
Actually, when she came back and ran in the Fleur de Lis at Churchill, I mean, it was visually one of her better races. She ran very well. So, she came off the shelf and ran a huge race.
Geoffrey Riddle: What did you make of (inaudible) second to Loving Pride (ph)? What did you make of the ride (inaudible)?
Bill Mott: I wasn’t overly critical of the ride. I mean, maybe some were, but I thought he was in position to win the race and maybe he would’ve—you know, knowing the filly a little better now, maybe he’d make a little adjustment in the future. But I don’t think by any means it was what we refer as a horrible ride. I don’t—I sure wouldn’t say that. I think you’ve got to remember we gave the winner 10 pounds in there, so I think that that has to be a factor.
Geoffrey Riddle: And lastly, do you feel there’s much more improvement in her, or is this the finished (inaudible) now?
Bill Mott: Well, I don’t have my crystal ball in front of me right now, but I think she’s been good and I just hope she stays as good as she’s shown us in the past. If she gets better, that would be great, but I don’t expect her to. I’m trying to keep her as—in the same form that she’s been in for the last three or four races.
John Scheinman: Last year Royal Delta finished second to Havre de Grace in a muddy Beldame and it was a setup race for an excellent win in the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic. Is this race—the Beldame is a pretty old prestigious race. Is this a race you would like very much to get on her resume with a victory here, or is this primarily a stepping stone to the next race?
Bill Mott: Well frankly, it’s a race that I’d like to get on my resume, as well as hers. It’s a race that I’ve never won, although I can tell you that we’ve run in it with three of my Breeders Cup Distaff winners and each of them has been beaten. I think Royal Delta was second in it and she won the Filly and Mare Classic. Unrivaled Belle was second. She won the Breeders Cup. And also, a filly named Ajina was second in the race and she won the Breeders Cup. So, I’ve been, you know, three seconds in the Beldame and they all went on to win the Breeders Cup in their next start. So, you know, do I hope I win it? Yes, I’d love to win it. But if I’m second, maybe it’s something to be said for what’s to come.
John Scheinman: Excellent. Well, does this race, being what it is, this big, long run as opposed to the two turn, does this hinder or favor her in any way? And as a second part to this question, my sense is we’re coming up with a pretty light field. And from a tactical perspective, how do you race It’s Tricky? Or, it’s two parts.
Bill Mott: Well, I mean, I think you’re going to see It’s Tricky with a lot more speed without a stumble from the gate. I think they probably have intentions of laying up close and they’re going to make us try to catch her. And I’m sure her job’s going to be up close and we’re going to have to try to run her down. Tactically it’s probably a little bit different race than a two-turn race. The speed has been carrying very well at Belmont and I would be as satisfied if it was a two-turn race, but it’s not. And our filly has run well enough there before, but it certainly could play into the speed bias of the track. If it comes up the way it was this past weekend, why it may favor a speed horse.
David Grening: Hey, Bill, I was just wondering if you could talk a little about Flat Out and where you think he is off the two races that he’s had this year, A. B) how much stock do you put into the fact that he’s two for two at Belmont? And C) have you finalized a rider for him?
Bill Mott: A) he’s doing very well. You know, he’s—I’m happy with the works that he’s put in, happy with the way he’s going, what he’s doing. He seems like he feels good and is ready to run. I think we’ve had a fair amount of time to get over the Whitney. We’ve had a nice training schedule since then and obviously, he’s run well on the track before. That’s got to be a bonus anytime you’ve got one running on any particular track, if they’ve already been a dual winner there. And third part of your question is Rosario is going to be named to ride.
David Grening: You had mentioned the speed (inaudible) nature of the main track at Belmont. Does that hinder Flat Out at all, do you think? Or—and I guess would it hinder Ron the Greek the way with his style?
Bill Mott: Flat Out is able to lay in the stalking position. I think Ron the Greek is one that, you know, has always been a deep—generally been a deep closer, unless he happens to be in a race with—that’s void of early speed. But with any sort of an honest pace in the race Ron the Greek is a deep closer. And the only thing is we’ve got a mile-and-a-quarter, you know, opposed to a mile-and-an-eighth race. Given that extra eighth of a mile that should help Ron the Greek, I would think sustain his run and Flat Out. The normal pace scenario that he would get going a mile-and-a-quarter, it should put him up a little closer in the race.
Tom Pedulla: Bill, your resume speaks to your ability to (inaudible) the horses and keep them good and have them peak, you know, later in the year. Is there any key or any bit of your philosophy that you could share that would help to explain that?
Bill Mott: Well, I don’t—I think the only thing you could say about it is try to take care of them when they’re immature and a little younger, and we’ve either had the benefit of receiving some horses that got good at a little older age. And maybe if it’s ones we started out with we’ve given them enough time to mature. So, you know, a lot of times it’s just the way things work out, but I guess you always try to keep enough run in the tank for the big day, and that’s what we’re trying to do here. And sometimes it’s touchy.
It’s just like with a horse like with To Honor and Serve. Okay, do you give him one race in between Woodward and the Breeders Cup, or do you train him into the race? If you have to train him into the race and you’re going to go a mile-and-a-quarter, you’ve got to train him for nine weeks, which when you do that you’ve got to put him on the racetrack and put some pretty serious works in him. It can be done. It’s not certainly not impossible, but sometimes if you have a race in there and you’ve only got five weeks to go, it makes your job a little bit easier. It’s always a little bit of a balancing act to know whether you’re doing too much or not enough. So, we do the best we can and make the best educated guess we can and hope it works out.
Gary West: Wondering about Royal Delta, where she is relative to where she was exactly a year ago. And Ron the Greek, he’s improved steadily almost—well, for the last year, anyway, and where he is now relative to say, the Stephen Foster (ph).
Bill Mott: Ron continues to do well. I mean, he’s just one of those horses that maintains his condition. He looks good. He’s moving well and his works are consistent with what we saw earlier in the year. He’s not a real flashy workhorse, he’s more or less workman-like, I suppose, and—but he’s really doing well. He’s a beautiful horse with a great constitution. He loves to train and he always seems to give you plenty in the afternoon and he’s done remarkably well for a horse who started out—was actually—probably ran in, I guess, maybe December in New York and then went down to Florida and he’s been just a real dream to have, in that regard.
As far as Royal Delta, she’s a year older, she’s much more mature, and she’s doing well. She’s—as I said earlier, she eats well and loves to train, and she seems to still love to run. So, you know, hoping that we continue on that path with her. She’s doing great.
Eric Wing: Okay. Bill, just before we say goodbye, I was just curious with Flat Out and signing up Joel Rosario to ride him on Saturday as the defending Jockey Club Gold Cup Champion. Is part of the appeal with Rosario the fact that he’s got outstanding success on his resume at Santa Anita, or am I over-thinking it, or have you not thought it out that far down the road yet?
Bill Mott: Well, we thought about that, but actually,right now the Gold Cup is a one-race contract and I suppose we’ll see how he rides. And I’m sure he’ll see how the horse runs, and we haven’t gone any further than that. He seems like a very capable rider and I hope he has a good day as well as Flat Out. So, I hope they make a good team and I guess we’ll see after the Gold Cup whether or not we go on and continue with him or not.
Eric Wing: Very good. Well, Bill, thanks, as always, for your time and answering all these questions. Obviously, a big day ahead for you and your team and we wish you the best of luck with all your runners on Saturday at Belmont.
Bill Mott: Okay, thank you very much.
Eric Wing: Thank you. That’s trainer Hall of Fame—Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. He will be busy with Royal Delta in the Beldame, the duo of Ron the Greek and defending Jockey Club Gold Cup Champion, Flat Out, in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, and looks like well, To Honor and Serve will at least be entered in the Kelso and certainly, therefore, a decent chance that we see him in action in the one-turn Kelso Handicap. That, like all the aforementioned, win-and-you’re-in race to the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile; the others, of course, the Gold Cup win-and-you’re-in for the Classic, and the Beldame, a win-and-you’re-in for the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic.
Okay, our second guest today knows a thing or two about Breeders Cup Challenge win-and-you’re-in events. He’s already exploited that system quite nicely. He’s qualified already Include Me Out for the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic by virtue of a win in the Clement L. Hirsch. He’s qualified Rail Trip in the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile by virtue of a win in the San Diego Handicap, and he can give himself a nice option should Rail Trip win the Awesome Again Stakes because that would be a real win-and-you’re-in for the Breeders Cup Classic. And in Casino Host he qualified that Dynaformer colt for the Breeders Cup Turf by virtue of the win in the Delmar Handicap, and Casino Host will run Sunday in the Grade 2 $150,000 John Henry Turf Championship. And we’re delighted now to bring in trainer Ron Ellis.
Ron, it’s Eric Wing in New York. Thanks for being on the call with us today.
Ron Ellis: Hi, Eric, my pleasure.
Eric Wing: Okay, I was just—I don’t know if you just popped in, but we were just—I was just kind of speaking in impressed tones about how you’ve got all these horses qualified already for the Breeders Cup with still the final round of preps to go, but I want to ask you about Rail Trip. Now, he’s already in like Flynn for the Breeders Cup Dirt Mile. If he does real well in the Awesome Again, does that give you kind of a pleasant problem to figure out?
Ron Ellis: Yes, no question about it. You know, we’re coming off a mile-and-a-quarter race that I thought he was one race short for, even though he has won a mile-and-a-quarter when he won the Hollywood Gold Cup. So, you know, we’re not really sure if he’s better at a mile or better at a mile-and-a-quarter. Most of the big purses that we’ve gone after have been at a mile-and-a-quarter, so we’ve never really focused on him being a miler. He used to have a lot of speed when he broke his maiden and ran 1:07 and change and, you know, it always seemed like he’d be a good miler. In fact, people told me that’s what he was and he wasn’t a mile-and-a-quarter horse until he won the Gold Cup.
So yes, we’re going to run in the Awesome Again and kind of decide what our next move is off of that.
Eric Wing: Okay. And with all your horses, Bill—or Ron—you have the luxury of, unlike Bill, just being able to essentially walk the horse over from his barn. I know Rail Trip is stabled at Betfair Hollywood. But how big of an advantage is that for you not necessarily this weekend when most trainers are in that boat, but down the line in the Breeders Cup, this being a year in which you don’t have to ship?
Ron Ellis: Well, we just have to ship across town, you know, we’re based at Hollywood all year long. And so the horses do really well over here. And we had a great Santa Anita winter meet training here and then shipping over. The horses handled the switch very, very well. A little bit deeper racetrack at Betfair Hollywood Park than Santa Anita, so it kind of helps, you know, fitness—from a fitness standpoint. But—so we ship them over there about three, four days ahead of time so they’re not really—don’t have that home field advantage, so to speak. But like I said, we had a great winter meet there and did it that way, so I don’t see any reason to change. And all my horses have done real well here all year, so we’re not going to change.
Eric Wing: No need.
Ron Ellis: But I think it is a big benefit, even just being we only have to ship across town, you know?
Danny Brewer: Does the success you had at Del Mar, does that help you any as you go to Santa Anita for their meet and for Breeders Cup?
Ron Ellis: Well, I mean, other than we’ve got horses doing well at kind of the right time, is about the only thing that it helps us with. I mean, unfortunately, in our business, it’s pretty much the meet that ends is the meet that ends and a new meet starts everything all over again, you know? It seems like people mostly remember what have you done for me lately, so we always look at it as a new meet and what we’ve done in the past kind of goes on the resume. But you’ve got to start all over going into a new meet, and that’s basically what we’re looking at for the Santa Anita fall meet.
But Del Mar was a very nice surprise that the horses fired so well. As I mentioned, I base at Betfair Hollywood Park all year round, and I really thought I was going to be giving up some sort of a home field advantage by staying at Hollywood Park during the Del Mar meet. Usually when I train the horses here, Del Mar, due to their atmosphere conditions being so close to the ocean and with their track being so radically different than the racetrack up here, usually the horses—you do give up something. But I was very fortunate this year that the horses really performed at a peak level, and that was with shipping. So, I felt very fortunate.
Danny Brewer: Rail Trip, is he somebody that has gotten better with age, and do you think he’s still getting better? Has he hit his head on the ceiling yet?
Ron Ellis: No. To tell you the truth, I mean, in my opinion, he was a better horse when he was four and five years old, you know? But that doesn’t mean that he can’t still get it done. A lot of people would obviously argue with me, but I thought he was the best horse in the country as a five-year-old when he lost that Gold Cup race. You know, that was just a ridiculous ride that day; he should’ve been in front by five. Other than that, he looked like a monster, if you go back and look at his two prep races for that. So, I thought he was the best horse in the country as a five-year-old. I don’t know that I could say that now. We’re hoping that he’ll get back to that, but so far it’s been kind of a little bit slower journey getting him in peak form.
Carol Holden: Hi, Ron, thanks a lot for joining us today. I’m not familiar with all of the Breeders Cup rules or whatever. You’ve already qualified these horses. I’m wondering, if you end up double qualifying, do you get double pay from them?
Ron Ellis: Yes, I don’t think so, unless we run in both races, which would be a little hard to do. But no, I think you just qualify. But I’ll tell you, really I didn’t realize how much it ends up costing to run—for an owner to run in the Breeders Cup. I know Casino Host, he actually earned an extra $90,000 when he won the race at Del Mar, because $90,000 was the entry fee that—you’re not only qualified to get in, but it also covers all your fees for running the race. So, it’s $90,000 that my owner won’t have to put up to run in the race.
And it gives you a (inaudible) because, you know, we won a Grade 2 down there, and this horse is a double Grade 2 winner. He hasn