Bill and Riley Mott rolled up to the Oklahoma Training Track’s clocker’s stand in a golf cart as training hours wound down with only a smattering of horses out late Monday morning at Saratoga. A few minutes later two of Mott’s trainees rolled past, Mr. Meister coming by first at a decent gallop with Good Samaritan a few seconds later at a slightly easier clip.
Good Samaritan, equipped with the same blinkers he’ll wear in Saturday’s Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont Park, caught up quickly around the far turn and was about a length back heading into the backstretch. Mr. Meister broke off from the five-eighths pole still about a length clear and the two eventually were side-by-side around the far turn.
The pair continued that way into the lane, the Motts watching through binoculars in the shade of the small observation stand. Good Samaritan turned for home just ahead of his workmate and quickly drew clear in the lane, finishing well and stopping the clocker’s watch in 1:03.59 for the 5 furlongs. Mr. Meister, winner of a 7 1/2-furlong allowance race at Suffolk Downs Sept. 2, came home in 1:04.99 and about 7 lengths back.
Good Samaritan’s work, the fourth fastest of seven at the distance that morning, was his final breeze before the 1 1/4-mile Gold Cup and his third in blinkers. Bill Mott added the equipment to the 3-year-old son of Harlan’s Holiday after watching him drop well back in his last two starts before making his late run. He said they’ve produced positive results so far.
“They seem to,” Mott said Tuesday morning aboard his pony in the courtyard in front of his barn. “They put him a little more into the bridle a bit early in his works. He was kind enough with them but at the same token they seemed to have him paying attention.”
Mott hopes for similar results in the $750,000 Gold Cup, where Good Samaritan takes on a field led by Keen Ice, Destin and Diversify.
“Hopefully they place him a little closer,” Mott said. “He was dropping a good ways out of it (in his last two starts).”
Good Samaritan won one of those two starts – the Grade 2 Jim Dandy over Kentucky Derby winner Always Dreaming and Preakness winner Cloud Computing – after dropping back early. Good Samaritan closed from 12 lengths back to win the 9-furlong Jim Dandy by 4 3/4 lengths in his first race on dirt July 29 at Saratoga. He followed that performance with a fifth in the Travers. He lost that day by 9 lengths, passing several foes late and making up a little ground after dropping way back around the first turn and on the backstretch.
“I don’t think it’s going to make a huge difference but maybe it’ll put him a couple lengths closer, which would be great,” Mott said.
The Jockey Club Gold Cup is a “Win and You’re In” race for the Breeders’ Cup Classic, a race Mott won in 1995 with Cigar and in 2011 with Drosselmeyer. A win or a good performance could put Good Samaritan on the same Oct. 26 flight to San Diego with stablemate Elate, who earned her spot in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff with back-to-back Grade 1 victories in the Alabama at Saratoga and Beldame at Belmont.
Another likely Breeders’ Cup starter for Mott is Capla Temptress, who won the Grade 1 Natalma Stakes at Woodbine in September to earn an automatic spot in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. She won the Natalma in her first North American start for Marco Botti and was transferred to Mott by owner Team Valor International shortly after that race.
“We’re scheduled to leave on the 26th, so I think we’re one of the first planes out there,” Mott said. “In the past I’ve gone on the Monday or Tuesday before the Breeders’ Cup, but I guess we’ll be there the Thursday before now and we’ll get to breeze over the track.”
The $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup anchors a strong card at Belmont that also includes the Grade 1 Champagne for 2-year-olds, Grade 3 Hill Prince for 3-year-olds on the grass and $150,000 Belmont Turf Sprint Invitational. Belmont’s Breeders’ Cup prep races continue Sunday with the Grade 1 Flower Bowl for older females on the turf and the Grade 1 Frizette for 2-year-old fillies.
