Elate, Yoshida give Mott diverse Breeders' Cup Classic threat
Trainer Bill Mott has saddled 10 Breeders’ Cup winners, including two Classic heroes. His 2019 contenders in Saturday’s $6 million race, however, couldn’t be more different, giving the Hall of Famer a two-pronged chance at Santa Anita Park.
Elate and Yoshida are vying to join the barn’s previous Classic winners Cigar (1995) and Drosselmeyer (2011), with Mott taking some unconventional routes to the 1 ¼-mile feature. Mott’s opting to run multiple Grade 1 winner Elate against the boys thinking the 10 furlongs suit her best. For the second year in a row, Yoshida comes into the race off a layoff dating back to Saratoga’s Woodward (G1). “There’s a lot of upside for her to run in the Classic,” Mott said of Elate, a daughter of Medaglia d’Oro who won the Alabama (G1) at 3, then took back-to-back editions of the Delaware Handicap (G2) as an older horse. “She’s 3-for-3 at the distance, never been beaten at a mile and a quarter. We just want to give it a try. She’s run well against the girls, and we’re willing to take on the challenge of running against the boys -- particularly at that distance.” With many viewing this year’s Classic as one of the weaker renewals, Mott noted that Elate “ put in a few efforts that I think are equivalent to any of the boys in this race.” He’d like her to repeat either of her top efforts, which “I think it puts her right there.” He added: “Everything kind of comes together for her on the main track at the mile and a quarter.” Elate took consecutive graded events over the summer, with a victory in Churchill Downs’ Fleur de Lis (G2) preceding the Delaware Handicap. From there, she was out-dueled by division Midnight Bisou in a Personal Ensign (G1) thriller at Saratoga. Midnight Bisou, who will lead Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff, finished in front of Elate three times this season. They separated for their final preps, with Elate finishing second to Blue Prize in Keeneland’s 1 ?-mile Spinster. Since then, Elate has trained toward the Classic. “She had a good blowout before she left Churchill -- very quick. Looked very good,” Mott said last week. “My son, Riley, said it looks like she shipped to California well. We galloped over the track three days and she’s been doing fine.” The Classic will mark Elate’s final race before beginning her career as a broodmare. Yoshida could follow his stablemate in breeding, though those plans aren’t as concrete. “I think there’s a very good possibility that Yoshida is going to go to the stud barn next year,” Mott said. Yoshida, a 5-year-old by Heart’s Cry, runs for the familiar ownership group of China Horse Club, WinStar Farm and Head of Plains Partners. “If he comes out of the Breeders’ Cup Classic in good order, I’d actually like to take him back to New York and maybe give him a try in the Cigar Mile,” Mott said. Unlike Elate, who will be making her seventh start in the current form cycle, Yoshida will come off the bench in the Classic. “We thought what we would try to do is bring him in fresh as we could into the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” the trainer said. “He’s done very well. I think he looks great. I always like a fresh horse and he seems like he’s doing very well right now.” Yoshida won’t see either of the two horses that beat him in the Woodward -- Preservationist and Bal Harbour -- in the Classic. Last year, he won the Woodward, then went on to be fourth in the big race at Churchill Downs. Prior to this year’s Woodward, Yoshida ran second to McKinzie in Saratoga’s Whitney (G1). That one he will see at Santa Anita, with McKinzie the anticipated Classic favorite. “He ran a very good race in the Whitney going a mile and an eighth,” Mott said. “He’s proven that he can get a mile and a quarter. He ran well in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last year.” And now he’s one of two shots Mott has at tying Bob Baffert with three Classic wins, most all-time in the race.