• To Honor and Serve to vacation at Live Oak before 4-year-old campaign
• “Perfect” Awesome Feather returns from eighth straight victory in good order
• Disposablepleasure exits Demoiselle victory with a grabbed quarter but otherwise OK; Pletcher’s other Cigar Mile Day runners doing well Sunday morning

To Honor and Serve, who on Saturday gave Hall of Famer Bill Mott his first victory in the Cigar Mile since it was renamed in 1997 for the trainer’s champion charge, was reported to be resting comfortably on Sunday morning as he awaited a van to owner Charlotte Weber’s Live Oak Plantation.

“He’s good,” said Mott’s assistant, Leana Willaford. “He’ll get a little freshening and then join us back at Payson [Park].”

A perfect 3-for-3 at Aqueduct Race Track having won last year’s Grade 2 Nashua and Grade 2 Remsen as a juvenile, To Honor and Serve skipped the Triple Crown series after third-place finishes in both the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth and Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. Sixth in his comeback race, the Grade 2 Amsterdam at Saratoga Race Course, he parlayed an impressive optional claiming win at the Spa into a victory in the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby at Parx before finishing seventh, beaten just 3 ½ lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs earlier this month.

Weber revealed after Saturday’s race that the son of Bernardini would be back for a 4-year-old campaign, and Willaford said she was impressed with the way the colt has matured through the latter half of his sophomore season.

“He’s obviously more mature, maybe a little taller and longer,” Willaford noted. “He hasn’t really gotten more muscular, but that will come hopefully next year; he’s still growing. Even from the spring until the last three weeks training here since the Breeders’ Cup, he’s just really, really been doing well and settling in. His gallops have gotten more controlled. He’s getting it.”

November has been a banner month for the Mott barn, with Grade 1 wins in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (Drosselmeyer), Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic (Royal Delta) and Cigar Mile after a slow start to 2011.

“It just kind of slowly has progressed,” Willaford said. “You don’t want to come out swinging and fizzle late. But they all got beat at the beginning of the year – Royal Delta and Drosselmeyer and this guy was a little compromised when we started out on the Derby trail. As usual, Bill did the right thing and said ‘OK, stop. Let’s give him some time and regroup,’ and it worked out.”

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Awesome Feather, who ran her career record to a perfect 8-0 in Saturday’s Grade 1 Gazelle, emerged from her 5 ¼-length victory in good order, trainer Chad Brown reported Sunday morning.

“She looks good this morning,” said Brown, who conditions last year’s juvenile filly champion for Frank Stronach. “We’ll watch her all week, and then send her down to Palm Meadows on Thursday. There’s a race for her down there [Sunshine Millions] at the end of January.”

Brown, who took over Awesome Feather’s training after Stronach purchased her for $2.3 million following her 6-for-6 campaign in 2010, continues to be impressed with the heart and courage displayed by the compact daughter of Awesome of Course.

“She’s a horse with tremendous heart,” he said. “You can’t train that into them. She’s a quiet killer; around the barn, she’ll walk around with her head down, but in the heat of battle, she turns into a piranha. She knows when to turn it off and when to turn it on.”

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Trainer Todd Pletcher revealed Disposablepleasure emerged from her dramatic victory in yesterday’s Grade 2 Demoiselle with a “slight grabbed quarter” but was otherwise doing well Sunday morning.

In the Demoiselle, Disposablepleasure stumbled badly at the start, checked on the far turn, split horses in upper stretch, and battled Wildcat’s Smile to the finish to prevail by a nose.

“I believe [she grabbed a quarter] at the start of the race, but it shouldn’t be anything that will hold her up,” said Pletcher, who trains the 2-year-old filly for Glencrest Farm. “Aside from that, she is in good shape.”

Pletcher lauded Disposablepleasure for her determination.

“I think the stumble alone would have been a significant enough of an excuse for her not to win, or getting stopped at roughly the three-eighths pole as abruptly as she did,” said Pletcher. “Putting the two together, it was an impressive performance for her, or any young horse going 1 1/8 miles the first time.”

Disposablepleasure has made a steady ascent so far in her career, finishing fourth on turf in August at Saratoga Race Course, second in September at Monmouth Park, and first by 11 lengths in October at Belmont Park in three starts prior to the Demoiselle.

“She was a filly we felt like early on wanted to run a route of ground,” said Pletcher. “She has some turf in her pedigree, so with the two-turn options at Saratoga we started off there, but she sort of gradually got a little bit better with every start. Her maiden win was clearly an improvement over her first two starts. So at that point we were looking at the calendar and circled the Demoiselle. Just training up to it was the best plan. There was a little more space than we would have ideally liked, but we felt like it was a safer play than having her final prep too close to the Demoiselle.”

In the other 2-year-old race on the card, the Grade 2 Remsen, El Padrino and Our Entourage respectively finished third and fifth for Pletcher. Two lengths separated the winner, O’Prado Again, from Our Entourage.

El Padrino, owned by Let’s Go Stable, entered the Remsen off two previous starts, including a 12 ¾-length victory in the slop on October 29 at Belmont Park.

“We were pleased with [El Padrino’s] effort,” said Pletcher. “We felt like he was a little bit green being inside horses for most of the race, but he seemed to find his best stride late when he was able to get out in the clear. We were pleased with his finish, and he galloped out very strongly. For a young and inexperienced horse, it was a promising effort.”

Our Entourage has raced on dirt, turf, and synthetic surfaces, but Pletcher believes the Repole Stable color-bearer will switch back to the grass for his subsequent starts. 

“I think Our Entourage ran well,” said Pletcher. “He only got beaten two lengths. I think yesterday’s race makes us believe that he is probably at his best on the turf, and we’ll probably focus, at least at the beginning of the year, on turf racing. We’ll see how he develops. He was a pretty late foal.”

Pletcher said that Disposablepleasure, El Padrino, and Our Entourage will likely depart for Palm Meadows in Florida on Tuesday. Mike Repole’s Calibrachoa and Caixa Eletronica, respectively third and fifth in yesterday’s Grade 1 Cigar Mile Handicap, will remain in New York for the winter.

“I think Calibrachoa will probably not run in the Gravesend [December 17] and will have a little bit of a break,” said Pletcher. “We’ll point for [Aqueduct’s series of sprint] stakes races, and we know he likes Aqueduct. Caixa Eletronica will stay here and we’ll try to find his niche, maybe around two turns.”

Love and Pride, R Gypsy Gold, and Savvy Supreme, third, sixth, and eighth in yesterday’s Grade 1 Gazelle, all exited the race in good order, Pletcher added.