Graham Motion | Horse Racing Free Tips

Tamahere Gets Tested For Class in Matriarch

Tamahere (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) looks to become the first 3-year-old filly since Better Lucy (Ghostzapper) in 2012 to defeat older turf distaffers in what appears to be a loaded renewal of the GI Matriarch S. Sunday at Del Mar.

One of three in the race for trainer Chad Brown–who won this in 2017 and 2018–the bay filly was twice a winner in seven French runs for Francois Rohaut, including a listed event at La Teste in June. She made an enormous impression when making her stateside debut in the GII Sands Point S. at Belmont Oct. 10, lagging well off a modest tempo before rocketing home to score by a two-length margin that belies the ease with which it was accomplished. She gets three pounds from her elders and could get the race run to suit her closing style.

Sharing (Speightstown) also represent the sophomore set and trainer Graham Motion, successful in this event with Miss Temple City (Temple City) in 2016. The 2019 GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf victress, the $350,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga grad won the Tepin S. first off the layoff in May, then was a very game second to the talented Alpine Star (Ire) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) in the G1 Coronation S. at Royal Ascot June 20. Returned to the States, she proved too classy for her peers in the GII Edgewood S. on the Kentucky Oaks undercard, but faces her stiffest test to date against horses that are significantly faster on paper.

Joel Rosario is a four-time Matriarch winner-including the Brown aforementioned Brown gallopers-and he has the call aboard the tepid 7-2 morning-line favorite Viadera (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}). A stakes winner in Ireland under the care of Ger Lyons, the 4-year-old was fourth to stablemate Newspaperofrecord (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) in the GIII Intercontinental S. in June, but has since bounced back to take the restricted De La Rose S. at Saratoga and comes off a neck defeat of stable companion Blowout (GB) (Dansili {GB}) in Belmont’s GIII Noble Damsel S. Sept. 26.

Juliet Foxtrot (GB) (Dansili {GB}) led into the final furlong of last year’s Matriarch, but was run down and forced to settle for third to Got Stormy (Get Stormy). The 5-year-old looks to follow up on a one-length tally in the GIII Gallorette S. at Pimlico Oct. 3 over yielding turf she never looked comfortable on.

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Royal Prince Aims for Starring Role in DeMille

Steve Landers Racing’s Royal Prince (Cairo Prince) is the 7-2 morning-line favorite in the GIII Cecil B. DeMille S. at Del Mar Sunday. The Brad Cox trainee came home first at Kentucky Downs Sept. 7, but with the gates sprung before the full field was loaded, the race was determined to be a non-wagering event. The gray colt, a half-brother to last year’s champion juvenile filly British Idiom (Flashback), officially broke his maiden going 1 1/16 miles over the turf at Keeneland Oct. 2. Cutting back to a mile Sunday, the juvenile could give Cox his second graded win of the weekend at Del Mar following Arklow (Arch)’s score in Friday’s GII Hollywood Turf Cup.

Also invading from the East for the holiday weekend, trainer Graham Motion sends out Madaket Stables’ Wootton Asset (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). A two-time winner in his native France over the summer, the dark bay colt missed by just a nose when second in the Oct. 3 Laurel Futurity in his stateside debut. He was most recently fourth in the Oct. 31 Awad S. at Belmont Park.

Representing the home team is Legacy Ranch’s Big Fish (Mr. Big), who is two-for-two over the DeMille’s course and trip after a maiden score there Aug. 21 and a one-length tally in the Sept. 7 Del Mar Juvenile Turf S. He is returning to the oceanside oval after a fifth-place effort in the Oct. 4 Zuma Beach S. at Santa Anita and he turned in a bullet five-furlong work in :59 3/5 over the Del Mar course Nov. 22.

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Del Mar’s Red Carpet Stakes Has Eastern Flavor; TVG’s Hoover Savors 2019 Victory By $8,000 Claim

The field of 10 for the Thanksgiving Day featured Red Carpet Stakes includes four horses that last raced in New York or Kentucky on assignment from nationally-renowned trainers. Three of them will have elite Eastern-based jockeys that venture west only when the stakes are most plentiful and highest – as they will be through the four final days of the Bing Crosby Season.

So the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Carpet figures to be a tasty hors d'oeuvre for the feast that will follow—six graded stakes on grass in three days in what amounts to a “Turf Festival” – to the November 29 close of the meeting.

Three notable equine travelers for the 1 3/8-mile Red Carpet marathon for fillies and mares are Orglandes for one of the nation's leading trainers, Chad Brown, Woodfin for Victoria Oliver and Blame Debbie for H. Graham Motion. And Peter Miller has had California Kook, runner-up in the G1 Del Mar Oaks last summer, in training at San Luis Rey Downs for a month since returning from a fifth-place finish in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup on October 10 at Keeneland.

Irad Ortiz, Jr., No. 1 in North America for purse earnings with nearly $20 million, will ride Orglandes, a 4-year-old import from France making her third U.S. start and coming in off a win at Belmont Park on October 9. Joel Rosario, No. 2 in winnings with nearly $17 million, has the call on California Kook. Manny Franco, No. 10 with more than $11.4 million will be aboard Blame Debbie after their initial collaboration resulted in victory in the G3 Dowager at Keeneland last month.

The field from the rail with jockeys in parenthesis: California Kook (Rosario); Never Be Enough (Tiago Pereira); Colonial Creed (Flavien Prat); Orglandes (Ortiz, Jr.); Going to Vegas (Mario Gutierrez); Woodfin (Jose Valdivia, Jr.); Aunt Lubie (Victor Espinoza); Blame Debbie (Franco); Hollywood Girl (Mike Smith), and Quick (Umberto Rispoli).

When TVG commentator Kurt Hoover saw the entries come out for the Red Carpet, he took special interest in looking over the field. Partly out of professional obligation, of course, but also for sentimental reasons.

“It's a race that doesn't mean a hell of a lot to a lot of people, but it does to me,” Hoover said by phone from the Los Angeles area.

Hoover, his friend from high school days Brian Ferguson and Jeff Lambert of Del Mar, a longtime client of trainer Bob Hess, Jr., comprised the ownership group of Zuzanna, an $8,000 claim of theirs that they watched win the 2019 Red Carpet at odds of 23-1.

“I remember watching her cross under the finish line and I remember being in the winner's circle, but I don't remember going down to the winner's circle,” said Hoover. It was the first stakes win as an owner for Hoover, who said he has had pieces of four or five horses with only Zuzanna succeeding at the stakes level.

“I suggested to Bob that we enter because I thought maybe we could hit the board,” Hoover recalled. “If it hadn't been a mile and three-eighths we wouldn't have entered. We were planning on going to the Claiming Crown (event) in Florida with her.”

The traditional Thanksgiving Day feature of the Bing Crosby Season was moved to Saturday in 2019 after rains early in the week compromised the Jimmy Durante Turf Course. That resulted in Paco Lopez, arriving from the east, being able to ride Zuzanna skillfully to a 1 ½-length victory.

After more than 30 career starts, Zuzanna has recently been retired and will be sold as a broodmare in January.

For the first time in 30 years, Hoover has a Thanksgiving Day off from work. But he said he'll be watching the Red Carpet with professional and sentimental interest.

“I like John Sadler's horse Quick,” Hoover said when asked for a 2020 selection. “Her last outing was a really good effort and I think she's ready to run big. Besides Quick, I think Graham Motion's horse coming in from Kentucky, Blame Debbie, will be very tough.”

In Thursday's edition, trainer Richard Baltas has the duo of Going to Vegas and Colonial Creed. Going to Vegas comes in off a runner-up effort, beaten only a neck by Warren's Showtime, in the G3 Autumn Miss at Santa Anita. Colonial Creed was second in the Katherine Crosby Stakes on the opening day of this meeting.

“Going To Vegas ran really good last time with the blinkers off,” Baltas noted. “It's a little far for her, but if she can get the distance, who knows? Obviously she's in a little tough because she's a 3-year-old running against older, but we're going to see because she's training really well.

“Colonial Creed has never been this far either, but she's coming off the pace now more and more, so maybe she will like the distance. I think they've both got a good chance.”

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Motion Looking Ahead To 2021 With Mean Mary; Sending German Group 1 Winner Laccario West To Del Mar

Trainer Graham Motion said he is already thinking well into 2021 with multiple graded stakes-winner Mean Mary with a title defense in the Grade 2 New York at Belmont Park an option for the well-bred daughter of Scat Daddy.

Owned and bred by Alex Campbell, Jr., Mean Mary was a gate-to-wire winner of the classic-distance turf event, which she won by 5 ¼ lengths under jockey Luis Saez. She was a last out seventh in the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf on Nov. 7 at Keeneland, where she was in contention early on and maintained a favorable position in mid-stretch before fading.

Motion also saddled Invincible Gal and Alda in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, who finished a respective 11th and 12th.

“They all came back well,” Motion said of his Breeders' Cup contingent. “I was hoping for a better run from Mean Mary, but it's the Breeders' Cup and these races are obviously very tough.”

Out of the Grade 1-winning Dynaformer mare Karlovy Vary, Mean Mary posted her fourth straight victory in the New York which she followed with a game runner-up finish to Rushing Fall in the Grade 1 Diana on Aug. 23 at Saratoga. Prior to the New York, she won the Grade 2 La Prevoyante going 1 ½ miles and Grade 3 Orchid going 1 3/8 miles, both at Gulfstream Park, displaying a similar frontrunning fashion.

Motion also spoke of Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic runner-up Laccario, who joined Motion's barn after making his North American debut in the 1 ½-mile event at Belmont Park and said the German Group 1 winner will ship to California for the Grade 2, $200,000 Hollywood Turf Cup on Nov. 27 at Del Mar.

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