SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott got comfy in his favorite chair in his living room Saturday night in the Spa City. Set the timer on his phone and shut his eyes.His assistant, Neil Poznansky, had gone to sleep by 8 but made sure his clock would wake him around 9:30 p.m.Both wanted to make darn sure they didn't miss the$1-million GI Pacific Classic at Del Mar. They awoke in time to watch the 5-year-old Knightsbridge (Nyquist) put on a dazzling show on the Left Coast.The Godolphin homebred won the Pacific Classic by 6 ¼ lengths with jockey Junior Alvarado.The morning after, Mott and his crew, back to work at the Oklahoma Training Track, were still marveling over the performance put in by Knightsbridge. The Mott barn is already home to one of the best horses in training in 2025 Horse of the Year Sovereignty (Into Mischief).Sovereignty won the GI Whitney Stakes earlier this month, earning a “Win and You're In” for the $7-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic on Oct. 31. Knightsbridge got the same deal by winning the Pacific Classic.A Sovereignty-Knightsbridge matchup would certainly be must-see for horse racing fans.Let's pump the brakes here. There is a long way to go until Halloween.“We want to do what is good for the racing world, but we want to do what is good for us, Godolphin, too,” Mott said outside his office on the Oklahoma Sunday morning.Sovereignty has a date on opening day at the new Belmont Park where he will face Forever Young (Jpn) {Real Steel {Jpn}) in the $1-million GI Jockey Club Gold Cup on Sept. 18.Mott wants to see what happens there before he starts thinking about the Breeders' Cup.“We want to see what the options are,” Mott said. “We will see how the Gold Cup turns out and then the team will make a decision. Look, we want to go to the Breeders' Cup with both, so their options are they both run in the Classic or one goes in the Classic and one goes in the [Dirt] Mile.”Alvarado rides both horses, so a decision would have to be made if both horses end up in the Classic.Knightsbridge improved his record to four wins in six starts this year. Before the Pacific Classic, he won the 1 1/8-mile GIII Monmouth Cup on July 18 by 10 1/4 lengths in his first try around two turns.In the Pacific Classic, Knightsbridge pressed with Full Serrano (Full Mast) and set some demanding fractions. The quarter went in :22.68 and the half in :45.45.“I thought it could be too fast,” Mott said. “Tina [his wife] and I were watching and, I said 'this isn't good, going 1 1/4 miles.' It was fast.”Knightsbridge didn't blink and now he is one of the top horses in the country. He just has to share that billing with a stablemate.“It's a good problem to have, said Mott, who added that Knightsbridge is scheduled to be back at his Oklahoma barn on Wednesday. “Without a doubt, we are very lucky.” Brown Has Another Alabama SlammerEven though it was gloomy and overcast on Sunday morning, it was all sunshine and rainbows at the barn of Chad Brown, the leading trainer at the Spa this summer.He was welcoming well-wishers in his office at the Oklahoma Training Track the day after My Gun's Loaded (Gun Runner) won the GI Alabama Stakes at Saratoga. Making her third start for Brown (fourth overall)–and her first appearance in a stakes race–My Gun's Loaded defeated a pair from trainer Mark Casse in Measure (Essential Quality), who was second by a neck at odds of 10-1.Casse's other runner, the 1-4 favorite Counting Stars (Honor A.P.) finished third.“My team did an unbelievable job with this horse,” Brown said, standing outside of My Gun's Loaded's stall. “So many people contributed in developing her. She is just a top filly.”Brown said My Gun's Loaded was tired the day after, which was to be expected. She had just run 1 1/4 miles for the first time after breaking her maiden on June 6 (at seven furlongs) and then wining a mile allowance on July 24.“She is lightly raced, I like that fact,” he said. “She has not been overly campaigned, but they are racehorses. We have to keep them healthy; anything can happen. Week to week, month to month. My job is to look after her and keep her healthy.”My Gun's Loaded is owned by Douglas Scharbauer and her next start could be in either the $250,000 GII Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park on Sept. 25 or the $650,000 GI Spinster Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 4. Both would be races against older fillies. Casse Not Disappointed in Counting StarsLosing a Grade I race with a 1-4 favorite can certainly sting, but Hall of Fame trainer Mark Casse wasn't kicking garbage cans on the Saratoga backstretch Sunday morning.West Point Thoroughbreds' Counting Stars, the beaten 1-4 favorite in Saturday's GI Alabama Stakes, came out of the race in good shape, but she was dog tired.“She's zonked, she is out,” Casse said, reporting that Counting Stars was sound asleep in her stall. “She is tired. I'm proud of her. She has fought a lot of fights, and she ran hard.”Counting Stars was making her fourth straight start in a Grade I race and she had won the last two, the Acorn Stakes and Coaching Club American Oaks, both at Saratoga. In the race before that, she was third in the GI Kentucky Oaks.Gary Barber, Bridlewood Farm's and Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners' Measure, Casse's other Alabama filly, finished second in the Alabama, a neck behind the winner, My Gun's Loaded.“As a trainer, you want a fair shot and we got that,” Casse said. “You want your horses to perform and we got that. And the number one thing, by far, is that they are all healthy.”Despite the loss, Casse still thinks that Counting Stars holds the lead in the 3-year-old filly division. Two Grade I wins, and two Grade I placings leave no doubt in his mind.“She has danced every dance; it's not even close right now,” he said. “Now, if the other filly (My Gun's Loaded) goes and wins the Breeders' Cup (Distaff), then you have a problem. Any 3-year-old filly that wins the Breeders' Cup is going to be champion.”Casse said the next step for Counting Stars could be the Spinster Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 4 and a possible rematch with My Gun's Loaded should Brown pick that spot.As for Measure, her next start could be at Parx Racing in either the $1-million GI Cotillion against 3-year-old fillies or the $1- million GI Pennsylvania Derby against the boys.The Cotillion is 1 1/16 miles; the Pennsylvania Derby is 1 1/8 miles. The post Saratoga Notebook, Presented by NYRA Bets: Knightsbridge Made for Some Great Late Night TV For Mott appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.