I have never been too high on THAS, and a lot of it has to do with Bill Mott\'s
historical lack of success with Spring 3YOs. You can look it up.
That being said, I have been watching Mott since about 1980 when he was winning
training titles at midwestern tracks, in the beginning with cheap claiming stock
and with some not so royally bred homebreds from a Detroit supermarket chain
owner named Farid Sefa.
Mott, like the now retired Frank Brothers, got a lot of experience as an exercise
rider for Jack Van Berg. Mott was able to learn alot by exercising his own stock
and eventually the Firestone and Paulson horses came along and William Ichabod
Mott ended up in Racing\'s Hall of Fame.
For all the blueblooded owners and runners Mott has surrounded himself with, his
graded stakes success with Spring 3YOs equals Drosselmeyer\'s Belmont win (I still
contend that this victory was a function of DMeyer\'s affinity for a Belmont strip
which was unusually deep and sandy), one win in at Keeneland, either in the
Lexington or Blue Grass and a Grade II Illinois Derby win with Vision and Verse
(who also ran second in the Grade I Belmont and Grade I Travers).
Even if THAS had gotten more out of his Fla Derby, Mott would probably be forced
to tighten the screws on this colt between now and May 7. Mott generally works
his stock in a manner I\'ve long associated with the Whiteleys and Shug McGaughey,
rarely working further than 5 furlongs and rarely asking for all in the morning.
THAS it could be argued might need two 6f works at a brisk pace between now and
May 7, and with the colt really being asked in one of the works, and I am fairly
certain Mott would not be comfortable asking for so much in the AM.
Yes, Mott\'s been in a bad slump. Drecklemeyer was empty yesterday. Mott has had
little success with his Tampa shippers. Possibly the unwanted distraction of a
Triple Crown contender has been part of the slump, who can say.
That being said, I\'ve been watching the races for as long as Frank D., and Mott
and Allen Jerkens are the two best I\'ve seen. They have had very little impact on
the Triple Crown trail, but they have played the game honestly, and the horses
have always come first.
If destiny ever afforded me the chance of owning a top notch race animal, the
first thing I would do (after of course selling a 55% share to each of Graph
Racing and Covel) would be to turn the animal over to HAJ or WIM. Unless of
course it was a Triple Crown prospect, in which case I would be looking for NPZ
or BB.
