Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
Resilience changes flight plan for Mott
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Trainer Bill Mott knew he’d be running in something on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs. Unsure about the Derby itself, Mott had his wife, Tina, make plane reservations to return home to upstate New York on Saturday night. Takeoff is scheduled for 6:05 p.m.
“I said if we’re not in the Derby, we’ll run these other horses, go to the airport, and watch it on the plane,” Mott said. “I guess now we’ll stick around a bit.”
At 6:05 p.m. on May 4, the Motts and the owners of Resilience will likely be doing the walkover from the backside to the new Churchill Downs paddock with a contender for Kentucky Derby 150. Resilience rebounded from his fourth-place finish in the Louisiana Derby with a 2 1/4-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial to earn his spot in the Derby starting gate.
The addition of blinkers seemed to help Resilience in the Wood Memorial. Mott and jockey John Velazquez said that in the Risen Star, when the pacesetting Track Phantom drifted out a path in front of Resilience turning for home, Resilience hesitated for a stride or two before running again.
“You can’t hesitate in those kinds of races,” Mott said. “I had blinkers on that horse before – we’ve been through that before – and we didn’t feel it made much of a difference. I closed them up a little bit more and we worked him a couple of times and he worked awfully good. Closing them up that little bit more, just adding a little bit more blinker helped maybe. That, and the horse was coming around.”
Resilience is a son of Into Mischief, but the bottom side of the family suggests he should be a turf horse. The dam, Meadowsweet, went 2 for 6 – all on turf – and is a half-sister to Courageous Cat and After Market, both Grade 1 winners on turf who never won on dirt.
“They’re all individuals,” Mott said.
On Sunday at Belmont, assistant trainer Leana Willaford said Resilience came out of the race in good order. He is likely to ship to Kentucky by Tuesday.
Mott will need a new rider on Resilience for the Derby. Velazquez is the regular rider of Fierceness, last year’s champion 2-year-old male who is coming off a 13 1/2-length victory in the Grade 1 Florida Derby and will be the probable favorite in the Kentucky Derby.
Mott has had a lot of success with Junior Alvarado, who is open in the Derby, but no decision has been made.
“He’s picked up a lot of these others that guys have had to take off and it’s worked out well for him,” Mott said.
Resilience is owned by Ric Waldman and Emily Bushnell – the latter is the daughter of longtime Mott clients Marty and Pam Wygod, who bred Resilience, who earned a 90 Beyer Speed Figure for Saturday’s effort.
Society Man, who finished second in the Wood at 106-1, is likely the only other horse out of the race to run in the Derby. He was coming out of a threelength maiden win going a oneturn mile on March 9 at Aqueduct. He is a son of Good Magic, trained by Danny Gargan, who also is part owner along with West Paces Racing and Anthony Melfi’s GMP Stables.
“We’re taking a shot,” Gargan said. “Are we a Derby favorite? No. Is he going to be 100-1? Probably not, more like 50-1, 75-1. I don’t think he’ll embarrass anybody because he tries so hard. Sometimes the best horse doesn’t win, the lucky horse wins.”
Society Man gives Gargan a second horse in the Derby. Dornoch, fourth in the Blue Grass, remains scheduled to run, Gargan said.
Society Man was to leave New York on Tuesday and arrive at Churchill Downs on Wednesday. Gargan said a decision has not yet been made on a jockey for Society Man. Luis Rivera Jr., who rode Society Man in his last two races, is only two months removed from losing his apprenticeship.
While Deterministic has enough qualifying points to make it into the Derby field, his eighth-place finish in the Wood with no apparent excuse makes him doubtful. Part owner Steve Duncker said Sunday the Derby is “improbable not impossible,” but he will get together with the remaining owners and trainer Christophe Clement to make a final decision.
Clement said Deterministic came out of the race “surprisingly well” though further evaluations of the horse would take place.
“Obviously, something is biting him somewhere,” Clement said. “He scoped okay, came back sound. He looks okay to me this morning. We’ll keep looking at him, keep working on him, and have the vet do a full check-up. I’m going to worry about him, I’m not going to worry about any race.”
Deposition, who fell at the three-sixteenths pole of the Wood, appears to have come out of that incident relatively unscathed. He spent the night at Cornell Ruffian Equine Specialists, a clinic across the street from Belmont Park. Trainer Uriah St. Lewis was going to pick him up early Sunday afternoon and take him back to Parx Racing.
St. Lewis said the horse was a little body sore, but all other examinations showed “everything
looks normal and good.”
St. Lewis said jockey Dexter Haddock also was a little body sore, but was expected to ride at Parx on Monday.
Over the last two decades, the Wood has hardly been a harbinger of Kentucky Derby success. Fusaichi Pegasus, in 2000, is the last horse to win both races. Funny Cide, second in the 2003 Wood, is the last horse to come out of this prep and win the Kentucky Derby. Since then, the Wood has produced 41 Derby starters with no horse crossing the wire better than fourth. Tacitus, the 2019 Wood winner trained by Mott, finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby and was elevated to third with the disqualification of Maximum Security.