Bill Mott hopeful of landing his first Empire Classic with Lunar Victory
Hall of Fame trainer, Bill Mott, is a couple of weeks away from possibly claiming the Breeders’ Cup Classic and the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic at Santa Anita in this year’s Breeders’ Cup World Championship, but there are other racing events that he has still not won, yet.
That event happens to be the $250,000 Empire Classic Stakes, which will be run on New York Showcase day’s 10-race card. The Empire Classic will be run over a distance of 1 1/8 miles on 20 October, 2012, at Belmont Park for 3-year-old and above colts and geldings.
Bill Mott will send out Juddmonte Farms’ 5-year-old horse, Lunar Victory to win his first ever Empire Classic against a field of 8 other runners.
Bred by William Parson Jr-David S Howe in New York, Lunar Victory had strung together a 5-race win streak mainly at Aqueduct and Saratoga race track, and 4 out of those 5 races have been allowance and allowance optional claimers with a single stakes victory in his penultimate start.
His win streak was broken when he finished second in an overnight stakes at Belmont Park. The son of Speightstown is coming off a half length victory in the Promenade All Stakes on 23 September, 2012, to winner, Saginaw.
Lunar Victory stumbled in the beginning, but regained momentum to keep the leader honest throughout the race. Now, Saginaw is pointed to run in the $150,000 Hudson Stakes over a distance of six furlongs.
“It looked like if it was a mile and an eighth the last time, he would have been the winner,” Mott said. “He was getting to the leader. We stumbled and we were back a little far; speed-favoring racetrack, but he was grinding them down at the end.”
Out of A. P. Indy’s mare Lunar Colony, Lunar Victory has an excellent record over 1 1/8 miles, where he won 2 in as many starts, and that is the same distance of the Empire Classic.
The 5-year-old in his five starts this season has never finished worse than second, and the rest have been victories, and it seems like Bill Mott will finally have a Empire Classic winning horse.
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