Bates Motel, named after the motel in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Psycho, is represented by such graded stakes winners as Private School, Rare Blend, Mysterious Moll, Grits'n Hard Toast, Barbarika, and Girl On a Mission, plus Canadian classic-winning filly Blondeinamotel and $799,769-earner Packett's Landing. Four of his runners were champions overseas. Overall, his runners have earned $24.7 million.Bates Motel, who was produced from the T.V. Lark mare Sunday Purchase, was a champion for his breeder, Jacqueline Getty Phillips, and her sons David and Michael. Unraced at two and a modest stakes winner at three, Bates Motel hit full stride the following year with grade I wins in the Santa Anita, Monmouth, and San Antonio Handicaps, plus the San Diego Handicap (gr. III). John R. Gaines, then owner of Gainesway, came on board that 1983 season. Bates Motel concluded his career with nine wins from 19 starts and earnings of $851,050.This year, Bates Motel is represented by a dozen yearlings and 13 juveniles.
Bates Motel, champion older male of 1983 and sire of 38 stakes winner, has been pensioned from stallion duty at Graham J. Beck's Gainesway Farm near Lexington, where he entered stud in 1984. The 24-year-old son of Sir Ivor still possesses sufficient fertility, but shows weakness in his back end, according to a farm representative.