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Mott registers 4,000th career victory

Bill Mott celebrates his milestone win with wife Tina and winning rider Kent Desormeaux (Adam Coglianese/NYRA Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott, who earlier this year won his first Triple Crown race with Belmont S. (G1) hero Drosselmeyer (Distorted Humor), reached another milestone Saturday at Saratoga Race when he sent out his 4,000th career winner. Mott, 57, best known for campaigning Hall of Famer and two-time Horse of the Year Cigar, reached 3,999 with the two-year-old filly Avanta (Dixie Union) in Friday's 2ND race at Saratoga, and hit the 4,000 win mark with Mystic (Unbridled's Song) in the 7TH race at the Spa Saturday.  "Four thousand is a big number and I guess, to some extent, it's an elite club and I'm happy to do it," Mott said. "I thought we might have to wait until the end of the month the way you get hung up on these things. You get to the last one and sometimes you have to wait -- I've seen it happen with numerous jockeys and ballplayers. "It's nice to have it today. It's a nice, sunny day in Saratoga and I'm glad it happened here. This is a very special place to have it happen. I'll always remember it."

Mott's first winner came at age 15, when he won a race at the bush tracks in South Dakota with a $320 mare he owned named My Assets. He went on to campaign dozens of graded stakes winners, including five champions: Theatrical (Ire), top male turf horse of 1987; Paradise Creek, top male turf horse of 1994; Escena, top older female of 1998, Ajina; top three-year-old filly of 1997, and Cigar, who in addition to Horse of the Year honors in 1995 and 1996 was also twice voted the top older horse.

The Eclipse Award winner as the nation's top trainer in 1995 and 1996, Mott was inducted into racing's Hall of Fame in 1998 at the age of 45, the youngest trainer to achieve the honor. He was won 19 individual training titles at New York Racing Association, Inc. (NYRA) tracks, including nine at Saratoga, most recently in 2007.

"There have been such a multitude of people that have really helped," Mott added. "It's not me that got 4,000 winners, it's the entire crew -- past assistants and grooms and hotwalkers and riders and such a multitude of owners.

"I've had so much help along the way, so much backing and moral support, and there's been a lot of hard work involved. I commend my assistants past and present for the good job that they've done."

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