{"id":207166,"date":"2026-03-26T17:36:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:36:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207166\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T17:36:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T17:36:08","slug":"chief-wallabee-favored-in-75th-florida-derby-at-gulfstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/207166\/","title":{"rendered":"Chief Wallabee favored in 75th Florida Derby at Gulfstream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among his who\u2019s who of outstanding horses, Bill Mott trained Cigar, the great thoroughbred whose statue overlooks the paddock walking ring at Gulfstream Park.<\/p>\n

Nine times, Mott has won the training title at Gulfstream. Twice he has won the Kentucky Derby. Sixteen times he has won a Breeders\u2019 Cup race. And in 1998, at age 45, he became the youngest trainer ever elected to racing\u2019s Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t much Mott hasn\u2019t accomplished, except this: he has never won the Florida Derby.<\/p>\n

Saturday, that blank on Mott\u2019s resume would be filled if Chief Wallabee reaches the wire first in Gulfstream\u2019s signature event, one of the nation\u2019s most critical Kentucky Derby preps.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely, I\u2019d love to win it,\u201d Mott said.<\/p>\n

Chief Wallabee is listed as the slight 2-1 program favorite to win the $1 million stakes, receiving the track oddsmaker\u2019s nod over 5-2 second choice Commandment.<\/p>\n

The 75th Florida Derby \u2014 a top race that has produced 26 Kentucky Derby winners \u2014 shapes up as this year\u2019s biggest prep heading into the May 2 Run for the Roses. Three of the top four contenders in the Daily Racing Form\u2019s top 20 ranking of Kentucky Derby hopefuls are entered for Saturday\u2019s 1 1\/8-mile race at Gulfstream.<\/p>\n

Along with Chief Wallabee and Commandment, Nearly (3-1) and The Puma (9-2) also figure prominently in the expected field of nine.<\/p>\n

Chief Wallabee, a son of 2014 Florida Derby winner Constitution, doesn\u2019t have a wealth of racing experience. He didn\u2019t race as a 2-year-old and has raced just twice at 3, including an impressive second-place finish behind Commandment in Gulfstream\u2019s Fountain of Youth Stakes last month.<\/p>\n

On experience alone, Chief Wallabee is no Sovereignty, the Mott-trained horse who finished second in last year\u2019s Florida Derby before going on to win the Kentucky Derby and 2025 Horse of the Year honors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to compare horses. I think that\u2019s a mistake,\u201d Mott said. \u201cSovereignty had a foundation in him. He had three races as a 2-year-old He had two good races [going into the Florida Derby] as a 3-year-old. This horse has only had two races total. So, I think it\u2019s a big ask. It\u2019s a huge ask, and I realize that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Chief Wallabee, who is owned by Michael and Katherine Ball, has shown enough promise to merit favoritism \u2014 and possibly get Mott into the Florida Derby winner\u2019s circle for the first time. Mott has finished second three times in the Florida Derby, with Sovereignty last year, Hofburg in 2018 and Blue Burner in 2002.<\/p>\n

One reason is that Mott, who started training in South Florida in the 1970s, hasn\u2019t run that many horses in the Florida Derby. Part of that, he said, is he didn\u2019t have the kinds of 3-year-olds that fit the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had the horses for it,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are some [trainers] who wake up in the morning and that\u2019s the only thing they think about. Believe me, we\u2019re enthusiastic about it, and maybe more so now than ever. But you\u2019ve got to have the right horses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps, Mott said, his cautious training style played a role, as well as his reputation early in his career for developing top turf horses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sure of it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt kind of got started like, I didn\u2019t like to rush my horses. I liked to take my time. I liked to take care of them. I wouldn\u2019t push one to go to the Derby, which was somewhat true. But I didn\u2019t have any horses to push.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore Country House [who won the 2019 Kentucky Derby on a disqualification to Maximum Security], if I had a true Derby contender, I\u2019d like to know who it was. I don\u2019t know who it would have been before that, where you look back and say, wow, this horse was a Derby horse. He just screwed him up.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Mott, who is 72, has a contender in Chief Wallabee.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still try to be realistic about it,\u201d he said of getting a horse to the Kentucky Derby. \u201cNaturally, it is a lot of fun, big race. If you\u2019ve got the right horse, it\u2019s great. It\u2019s not so much fun if you know you\u2019ve got the wrong horse and you\u2019re trying to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chief Wallabee on Saturday will try to show to Mott he\u2019s the right horse.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

John Devine has worked with the Miami Herald since 1996. He has worked as a Broward sports editor, Broward news editor, assistant sports editor and deputy sports editor before he became executive sports editor in 2021.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among his who\u2019s who of outstanding horses, Bill Mott trained Cigar, the great thoroughbred whose statue overlooks the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[94945,94946,22093,43813,94947,123,125,124],"class_list":["post-207166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-bill-mott","tag-chief-wallabee","tag-florida-derby","tag-gulfstream-park","tag-kentucky-derby-prep","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}