Mott seeks longer race options for Elate off season-opening defeats

After a pair of placings with Elate going 1 1/16 miles to open her 5-year-old campaign, Bill Mott will look for something longer next for the mare.

“She ran a credible race, but not her best race,” the Hall of Fame trainer said with Elate exiting a third in the April 14 Apple Blossom (G1) at Oaklawn Park. The daughter of Medaglia d’Oro previously finished second in the Azeri (G2), also in Arkansas.

“I don’t know that it’s her best distance,” Mott added. “Certainly, when she ran the first time, she ran well going a mile and a sixteenth. But I think there’s more there, and you’re not going to see it until we stretch her out.”

Mott has Elate stabled at Churchill Downs, where his string currently includes Kentucky Derby contenders Tacitus and Country House. She’s not expected to run under the Twin Spires at the upcoming meet that begins Saturday, with the La Troienne (G1) on Derby weekend among the stakes offerings.

“I’d be going back and making the same decision as when I ran her at Oaklawn to go a mile and a sixteenth,” Mott said, “and I think on my part it was a bit of a mistake.”

Elate, who won back-to-back Grade 1 races during the second half of her 3-year-old season, was a neck away from adding the Personal Ensign (G1) to her resume last year as an older horse. That wound up her final start of the year due to splint bone issue.

Lately, including with the Oaklawn Handicap (G2) run the same weekend as the Apple Blossom, Mott has nominated Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider’s Elate for races against males.

As for actually running?

“I wouldn’t mind doing that just to get the proper distance,” the trainer said. “Even nine furlongs helps. She’s been brilliant at nine furlongs.”