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Mott all over the place with trainerspeak post-race regarding maturity, blinkers, and the horse's next start.
I don't know what anyone else thought, but to me it looked like John Velasquez had a vise-grip for the first 1/2 mile or so on the colt who was pulling hard early (as might be anticipated w/ the addition of blinkers).
At any rate, Mott a bit contradictory here regarding the blinkers:
“It seemed to help quite a bit. The maturity and the blinkers all kind of seemed to come together,” Mott said.
Usually, when a horse matures it doesn't pull in the first part of the race and furthermore you usually see trainers remove blinkers as the horse gains some level of professionalism (see Alydar, Alysheba, Susan's Girl, Pleasant Tap, Tiznow).
Contradicts himself here, too, regarding why the blinkers were supposedly effective:
"It seems to make him level off a little more and stay in the bridle a little more," Mott said.
So the blinkers put him in the race and make him switch off at the same time?
At any rate, I'm sure there were some audible groans from the press members who were present when the following tasty tidbit on the colt's future was spewed. Not sure if a COVID-19 face mask would have protected the listener from instantaneous physical illness:
Mott said Tacitus would target “one or the other” between the Grade 1, $750,000 Whitney at nine furlongs on August 1 or the Grade 1, $500,000 Woodward at ten furlongs at Saratoga on Sept. 5.
I don't think even Todd Pletcher has found a way to avoid running in both races when they are over 4 weeks apart...
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