Mott trainees Yoshida, Elate to call it a career after Breeders' Cup

It was another routine morning for trainer Bill Mott’s Breeders' Cup Classic duo on Thursday – simple gallops, a trip through the paddock, then turns in the shedrow to cool out – which actually made the situation all the more wistful.

The Hall of Fame conditioner has been watching Elate and Yoshida go through their paces for more than three seasons now, developing the duo into multiple Grade 1 winners along the way. But when he puts the saddle on each for their expected starts in the Classic on Saturday, he also will be bidding a competitive farewell to two of the most reliable and talented members of his stable.

The 1 1/4-mile Classic is set to be the final career starts for both Elate and Yoshida, with the latter slated to join the stallion roster at WinStar Farm and Elate bound for her next career as a broodmare at her birthplace, Claiborne Farm. With so much on the line Saturday, Mott is keeping his focus locked in on trying to get his charges to the starting gate in the best shape possible.

That doesn’t mean, however, that the legendary horseman isn’t quietly savoring his last couple days as their caretaker.

“I know they’re going to good spots. I know Elate is going to a good home and she’s ready to start her new career, and the same with Yoshida,” Mott said. “I just hope that he’ll be successful and have some luck the first couple years at stud and then he can stay where he is at. That’s what we’ve been working for – trying to build up his record well enough so he would be popular the first year or two at stud.

“I would think he would have a fairly good attraction (in the stallion market). He’s got that Sunday Silence blood in him and I think we should be looking for that.”

Given the demand for well-pedigreed, successful fillies in the marketplace, Mott counts himself lucky to have had Elate in his barn for a long as he has. Her Grade 1 victories in 2017 Alabama Stakes and Beldame Stakes easily could have prompted her owner/breeders Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider to add the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro to their broodmare ranks following her sophomore season or abbreviated 2018 campaign.

“I feel fortunate that they’ve allowed us to keep her in training this year because she had a brief stint last year with only a couple starts and then she had a little issue,” Mott said. “They said ‘We’ll give her a little time’ and it wasn’t a serious problem and it worked out well. She’s run well for us this year, she’s had a good year.”

And neither she, nor Yoshida, is done just yet.