TRACKSIDE WORLDWIDE

Mott and Wolff Shine with Breakthrough Group One Wins on International Stage Veteran trainer Bill Mott and his family are no strangers to big wins at Saratoga. This week, though, it wasn't his own success that had him smiling. It was his son who brought Grade One glory to the household in the Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes on Saturday, August 2. The Riley Mott trained World Beater had a mighty challenge in front of him entering the race. Not only was he faced with running against proven winners, but he was also without his usual jockey. A late substitution was needed in the saddle when Jamie Torres was unable to make it to Saratoga in time for the race due to travel delays. Instead, it was Junior Alvarado who jumped on board and rode the three-year-old to victory.

Alvarado looked very comfortable riding World Beater from the outset, positioning him well in the middle of the pack throughout the early stages. Slowly finding his way to the rail, it was only a matter of time until Alvarado asked more of his ride, and he wasn’t disappointed. World Beater charged past his competition in the straight, beating pacesetter Juweiler by half a length.

The Mott elder was on hand to witness Riley’s first graded race success, with his own hope in the race, Capitol Hill, finishing in seventh. The winner of the Saratoga Derby automatically gets a place in the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley. World Beater’s connections will have to consider whether the trip down under will be worth it for the young horse. The Group One race is generally considered to be the best weight-for-age race in Australia and attracts some of the most elite thoroughbreds in the world. There is no doubt, however, that this will be the first of many big stakes race wins for Riley Mott, who will hope to continue following in the footsteps of his Hall of Fame father and remain in the winners' circle for many decades to come.

Meanwhile, at Düsseldorf, the German Oaks was run on Sunday, August 3, delivering a Group One win for the local horse Nicoreni. Heading into Sunday, all the talk was around whether Godolphin or Coolmore could finally get a race win in the Henkel-Preis der Diana. It wasn’t to be for either Spirited Style or Garden Of Eden, with both of the race favourites not benefiting enough from the experienced hands of their respective British jockeys—William Buick and Ryan Moore.

It was instead the young hometown jockey Leon Wolff who got to celebrate his first win at Group One level. This was also his first time riding Nicoreni after the horse’s regular rider was suspended earlier in the year for alleged off-course misconduct. The three-year-old’s trainer, Peter Schiergen, on the other hand, is no stranger to success in this race, having won it four times previously. written by Joe Bell