Emollient works for Garden City; Royal Delta on course for
Beldame
Already a Grade 1 winner on synthetic, Juddmonte Farms’ Emollient added a
second Grade 1 score to her resume in her first try on turf in July, when she
came from just off the pace to win the American Oaks at Hollywood Park.
Saturday, the Empire Maker filly will attempt to garner another Grade 1 on the
grass in the $500,000 Garden City on Belmont’s inner turf course.
The filly tuned up for the 1 1/8-mile race Sunday morning by breezing six
furlongs in 1:14 on the firm inner turf.
Trained by Hall of Famer Bill Mott, Emollient made her first five starts on
dirt, winning two and finishing second in two. Well backed at 5-2 in the
Gulfstream Park Oaks on March 30, she finished fifth, 30 lengths back, and Mott
elected to try her one week later on the synthetic surface at Keeneland Race
Course. She responded with a rousing nine-length romp in the Ashland. Back on
dirt for the Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico Race Course, she endured an eventful
trip and finished sixth, beaten 21 1/2 lengths.
“She’d run so well on the synthetic at Keeneland,” Mott said of the decision
to try turf in the American Oaks. “We’d worked her on the turf and that went
extremely well. So we decided to try her away from dirt, since obviously that
wasn’t working out.
“Empire Makers seem to run very well on the synthetic, but they can be dirt
or turf as well,” he added. “They can do anything, you just have to test them
out. You see a lot of them win at Keeneland when you put them on synthetic,
which she did. She’s been good enough to win on all three, but at this point in
time I’d say she’s best on turf, or synthetic.”
Looking ahead to Super Saturday, September 28, Mott added that two-time
Eclipse champion Royal Delta was doing well as she prepares to defend her title
in the Beldame Invitational.
The five-year-old mare returned to the worktab at Saratoga Friday for the
first time since her resounding 4 1/2-length victory on August 25 in the
Personal Ensign Invitational Handicap, breezing a half-mile in :48 2/5 over the
Oklahoma training track.
“She’s doing good,” Mott said of Royal Delta, who has a chance to three-peat
in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff. “I might work her one more time and bring her down
there. That way, she’d have a work over the track.”
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