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Motion Looking For Ninth Victory In Delaware Park’s Robert G. Dick Memorial

Godolphin's Micheline tops the $150,000, Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial at Delaware Park in Wilmington, Del., on Saturday. The 1 3/8-mile turf affair for fillies and mares has attracted a field of nine.

Micheline, a 4-year-old daughter of Bernardini, has a career record of five wins, two seconds and a third from 15 starts with earnings of $674,478. This year, the Kentucky-bred conditioned by Michael Stidham has one win from three starts. She opened her 2021 campaign with a score in the Grade 2 Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs on March 6. She followed with a pair of off-the-board races in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley at Keeneland on April 10 and the Grade 3 Eatontown at Monmouth Park on June 20.

Trainer H. Graham Motion will be going for his ninth career victory in the Robert G. Dick Memorial when he sends Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Micahel Cloonan and Timothy Thornton's Blame Debbie postward. In her only outing this year, the 4-year-old daughter of Blame posted a 3 ½-length score in the mile and a half Searching Stakes at Pimlico on June 13. Last year, the Kentucky-bred had a record of two wins and two thirds from eight starts including a victory in the Grade 3 Dowager Stakes at Keeneland. She has a career record of four wins, a second and three thirds from 12 starts with earnings of $277,920.

“I had not really planned on running her in this race before her last race, but these races are kind of just falling into place and I thought she ran nicely the other day at Pimlico,” said trainer H. Graham Motion. “She did not have a hard race and they did not run fast so I feel very comfortable running her back in four weeks. The races are very similar and we get Victor (Carrasco) back to ride. So with our past luck in this race and the way she has been going, it just makes sense for her to be in the race.”

Jordan Wycoff's Candy Flower may be peaking just at the right time. In her most recent, the 4-year-old daughter of Twirling Candy won a 1 1/16-mile turf allowance at Belmont Park on June 17. Previously, the Kentucky-bred trained by Saffie Joseph Jr. ran third in a one mile turf allowance at Belmont Park on May 22. She has a career record of four wins, three seconds and a third from eleven starts with earnings of $161,092.

“She is in good form and we think this a good spot for her,” said Joseph. “She has been a little of an overachiever. She always tries hard and runs well. We ran her at a mile and a half once at Keeneland and she just got beat, so we feel like the mile and three eighths should suit her well, so this is a good time to test her against Graded competition.”

$150,000 Grade 3 Robert G. Dick Memorial, fillies & mares 3-year-olds and upward,

1 3/8 miles on turf

#	HORSE	OWNER	TRAINER	JOCKEY	Wg	OD
1	Hotsy Totsy	Reeves Thoroughbreds	Amber Cobb	Jaime Rodriguez	118	15-1
2	Candy Flower	Jordan Wycoff	Saffie Joseph Jr	Sheldon Russell	120	8-1
3	Blame Debbie	Eclipse Thoroughbred	H. Graham Motion	Victor Carrasco	122	9/2
4	Micheline	Godolphin	Michael Stidham	Joe Bravo	124	5/2
5	Temple City Terror	Pocket Aces Racing	Brendan Walsh	Florent Geroux	122	6-1
6	Tonal Verse	Heights Stable	H. Graham Motion	Carol Cedeno	118	15-1
7	Luck Money	Catherine Wills	Arnaud Delacour	Mychel Sanchez	118	10-1
8	Dailka	Bal Mar Equine	Albert Stall Jr	Miguel Mena	122	7/2
9	La Dragontea	Reeves Thorughbreds	Christophe Clement	Trevor McCarthy	120	8-1

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Stidham Hoping For Big Effort From Micheline In Sunday’s Eatontown Stakes

Now that Micheline has notched her first graded stakes victory, doing so in her 2021 debut, trainer Michael Stidham is convinced there's much more to come this year for the 4-year-old daughter of Bernardini.

The next step is Sunday's Grade 3 Eatontown Stakes at Monmouth Park, with the $150,000 Father's Day feature race attracting a full field of 12 (as well as four alternates). Stidham is hoping the mile and a sixteenth grass race sets up the Godolphin runner for the Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes on Aug. 14 at Arlington.

“We had her ready to go at Belmont Park on June 4 (in the Grade 2 New York Stakes) but it absolutely poured rain,” he said. “It had rained there for a couple of days and right before the race they had to postpone the post parade because it was raining so hard. So we scratched her out of that.

“We needed a race for her. We knew this one would come up tough but we're pointing to the Beverly D. So we needed a race. It's time to get another race in her.

“Hopefully we'll get a good firm turf course on Sunday at Monmouth.”

Stidham learned about Micheline's aversion to a soft or yielding turf the hard way. After a sharp seasonal debut that saw her win the Grade 2 Hillsborough Stakes at Tampa Downs on March 6 off a five-month layoff – “I didn't feel like I had her cranked up to 100 percent but she won anyway,” Stidham said – Micheline was a tiring sixth in the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland on April 10.

That race was run over a yielding turf course.

“The race at Keeneland was a disappointment but the rain came down in buckets all morning and all day and the turf was horribly soft,” said Stidham. “She hated it. She never looked comfortable on it. When it came time for her to make her move she was spinning her wheels.

“To me it's a throw-out race.”

Micheline has proven to be a consistent turf router during her 14-race career with five wins, two seconds and a third. She has earned $671,978.

“She was always a filly that showed us a lot of ability and talent,” said Stidham. “The proof of that is we shipped her to Saratoga for her first career start (in 2019). That will tell you what we thought of her. We rarely ship to Saratoga unless we really like one.”

Micheline finished third in her racing debut. Stidham then shipped her to Monmouth Park, where she won the Sorority Stakes at a mile on the grass – as a maiden.

If Stidham has any reservations about the Eatontown Stakes — beyond the full, competitive field — it's the distance. Micheline won the Hillsborough at a mile and an eighth and has also won a mile and a half stakes race.

She is 1-for-5 lifetime at the Eatontown distance.

“I would say it's a little short for her,” Stidham said. “I would say she is better going a mile and an eighth and up. We hope she can overcome the distance Sunday with her class and talent.”

Mychel Sanchez has the mount.

First race post time for Sunday's 12-race card is 12:15.

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Brown Starts Pair in Bid for Fourth Straight Jenny Wiley

As of now, the only trainer to win four straight renewals of the GI Coolmore Jenny Wiley S. at Keeneland is the late Hall of Famer Bobby Frankel. Saturday, Frankel's future Hall of Fame protege Chad Brown will have a chance to equal his feat with a pair of contenders in the 1 1/16-mile turf test.

Capturing the Jenny Wiley with Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) in 2018 and Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) in 2019 and 2020, Brown will be represented by Tamahere (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) and Etoile (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}). The former punched her ticket to America with a dominant score in the Prix la Sorellina at La Teste Buch and impressively annexed the GII Sands Point S. in her North American debut before running sixth as the favorite in the GI Matriarch S. The latter, beaten less than a length when fourth in the G1 Prix de Diane Longines in June of 2019, failed to find the mark in her first two North American tries before breaking through in the GI E.P. Taylor S. when last seen Oct. 18 at Woodbine.

The morning-line favorite is Godolphin's Micheline (Bernardini). Scoring a 17-1 upset by open lengths in the Honey Ryder S. last spring at Gulfstream, the homebred was off the board in her next two before getting up late to take the Exacta Systems Dueling Grounds Oaks at 10-1 Sept. 10 at Kentucky Downs. She's kept up that good form with a second at 11-1 in the local GI Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup S. and a conquest of the GII Hillsborough S. last out Mar. 6 at Tampa.

“I really didn't feel like I had her completely tight for the Hillsborough coming off a layoff,” trainer Mike Stidham told TDN's Katie Ritz. “In my mind, I thought maybe I was a work or two short of having her totally cranked up for that race. So the way she ran was really impressive to me, knowing what I had in her. Since that race, she's come back and worked a couple of times and her last work [Apr. 2], in :47 [1/5] was a really, really good work for her because she's not a huge workhorse. For her to work like that, she was touting me that she's sitting on ready.”

Rounding out the major challengers is Juliet Foxtrot (GB) (Dansili {GB}). A dual graded stakes victress, she looks for a belated top-level success after placing four times in Grade I company, including when third in this race last year.

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Micheline Faces Brown-Trained Duo In Saturday’s Jenny Wiley

Godolphin's homebred Micheline, winner of the Hillsborough (G2) at Tampa Bay Downs in her 2021 debut, and the graded stakes-winning duo of Etoile and Tamahere trained by Chad Brown headline a small but select field of six fillies and mares entered Wednesday for Saturday's 33rd running of the $300,000 Coolmore Jenny Wiley (G1) at Keeneland.

The Coolmore Jenny Wiley, run at 1 1/16 miles on the turf, will go as the 10th race on Saturday afternoon's 11-race program with a 6:03 p.m. post time. First post time is 1:05 p.m.

Trained by Mike Stidham, Micheline closed 2020 with a victory in the Dueling Grounds Oaks at Kentucky Downs and then was runner-up in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (G1) Presented by Dixiana here last fall. Her victory in the Hillsborough represented her first graded stakes victory.

Luis Saez will have the mount and break from post one.

A racing rarity will occur Saturday when half-siblings Micheline and Proxy – whose dam is millionaire Panty Raid, winner of the 2007 Juddmonte Spinster (G1) at Keeneland – start in consecutive graded stakes for owner-breeder Godolphin.

Micheline, a 4-year-old daughter of Bernardini, will be looking for her first Grade 1 victory in the $300,000 Coolmore Jenny Wiley (G1) at 1 1/16 miles on turf. In the day's previous race, the 3-year-old Tapit colt Proxy will bid for his first stakes win in the $200,000 Stonestreet Lexington (G3) at 1 1/16 miles on dirt.

Both are trained by Mike Stidham.

While they share immense talent, Stidham said the sister and brother have distinctive traits. Most notably, Micheline is claustrophobic in traditional housing, so she resides in a portable stall near Stidham's barn. At Keeneland, the special setup awaits her Thursday arrival from Florida.

Micheline also showed her talent sooner than Proxy did.

Micheline, who has earned $665,978 with five wins in 13 starts, flashed her brilliance before finishing third in her career debut in August 2019 at Saratoga.

“We took her to Saratoga for her first start, so that shows how much we thought about her,” Stidham said. “We very rarely run horses at Saratoga unless we are very high on them.”

Micheline fulfilled expectations by winning the Sorority at Monmouth Park a month later. She next was unplaced in her lone dirt start in Keeneland's Darley Alcibiades (G1).

Winner of the Honey Ryder at Gulfstream Park at 3, Micheline closed her sophomore season at Keeneland as runner-up in the Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup (G1) Presented by Dixiana. In her first start of 2021, she won the March 6 Hillsborough (G2) at Tampa Bay Downs.

Stidham said Proxy's ability was not as evident early as his sister's was.

“Proxy is one of those horses who did everything right but not anything real flashy,” Stidham said. “He was never a 'wow' horse going into his first start.”

Proxy earned his first victory in November at Fair Grounds in his second start and next was second in the Lecomte (G3) and Risen Star (G2) Presented by Lamarque Ford. A winner of two races from six starts – all on dirt – with earnings of $227,700, he comes into the Stonestreet Lexington off a fourth-place effort in the Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2) at Fair Grounds.

“After the Lexington, we will see how he runs and decide where we go from there,” Stidham said.

Brown will be going for his fourth consecutive victory and fifth overall in the Coolmore Jenny Wiley when he sends out Etiole, owned by Peter Brant, Mrs. M.V. Magnier and Mrs. Paul Shanahan, and Tamahere, owned by Swift Thoroughbreds, Madaket Stables and Wonder Stables.

Etoile will be making her first start since winning the E.P. Taylor (G1) at Woodbine in October. A Group 3 winner in France before coming to North America, she will be ridden by Javier Castellano and break from post four.

Tamahere, winner of the Sands Point (G2) in her U.S. debut in October, will be making her first start since finishing sixth in the Matriarch (G1) at Del Mar. Irad Ortiz Jr. has the mount and will break from post two.

Brown's winners in the Coolmore Jenny Wiley are Ball Dancing (2015), Sistercharlie (IRE) (2018) and Rushing Fall in 2019 and 2020.

The field for the Coolmore Jenny Wiley, with riders and weights from the rail, is: Micheline (Saez, 118 pounds), Tamahere (FR) (Irad Ortiz Jr., 118), Juliet Foxtrot (GB) (Tyler Gaffalione, 118), Etoile (FR) (Castellano, 120), Maxim Rate (Umberto Rispoli, 118) and La Signare (FR) (John Velazquez, 118).

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