Graham Motion

Chad Brown has two good chances to score his third straight win, and fifth overall, in Belmont's GII Sands Point S. Saturday. Higher Truth (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) broke her maiden and won a N1X allowance going 10 furlongs over this course in the spring and was third to the ill-fated Santa Barbara (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) in this venue's July 10 GI Belmont Oaks Invitational S., which was also run at 1 1/4 miles. A close second in the GII Saratoga Oaks Invitational S. Aug. 8, the bay led throughout the...

MGSW & MGISP Mean Mary (Scat Daddy--Karlovy Vary, by Dynaformer) has been retired from racing. Mary Venezie, who works for owner/breeder Alex G. Campbell, Jr., made the announcement on Twitter Friday. "With heavy hearts, Team Campbell, Graham Motion and Herringswell Stable have decided to retire our girl, Mean Mary," the tweet stated. "She ran a great race and we had so much fun cheering her on. We are very sad, but we are looking to the future and what is best for her." Earning her black-type badge in the 2020...

The breeding of Thoroughbreds being such a notoriously long game, a dispersal as uncommon as this one offers the most privileged of short cuts. It's as though you can transplant an oak overnight from a mature plantation. Someone else has put in all the necessary, painstaking seasons, years, decades since the acorns were first sown. So it's a given, absolutely, that the root-and-branch dismantling of Pin Oak Stud into the Lexington lumberyards next week--two dozen mares, fillies and weanlings at Fasig-Tipton on Sunday evening, with 14 yearlings to follow across...

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL--For all leading trainer Graham Motion has accomplished in an illustrious career, missing from his resume is a victory in any of Chicago's Grade I events. Alex Campbell, Jr.'s Mean Mary (Scat Daddy) will try to right that wrong as the 9-5 morning-line selection for Saturday's GI Beverly D. S., the first of the afternoon's top-level tests. A treble graded winner in 2020, the homebred was just run down by champion Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) in the GI Diana S. last August and weakened to seventh at...

On Wednesday, disgraced trainer Jorge Navarro pled guilty to one count of distribution of adulterated and misbranded drugs with the intent to defraud and mislead, a major development in the doping scandal that has rocked the sport since indictments were announced in March of 2020. Navarro will likely spend time in prison and has been ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $25,860,514. His career is over and he may be deported to his native Panama. But was this good day or bad day for the sport?  And what...

West Point Thoroughbreds' Kanthaka (Jimmy Creed--Sliced Bread, by Noonmark), a dual graded-stakes winner on dirt and Grade I placed on turf, has been retired. According to a tweet from the New Jersey-based partnership, John H. Haines, a partner in the 6-year-old gelding, adopted Kanthaka and moved him to a ranch in Oregon, where he arrived Sunday. A $140,000 purchase out of the 2017 Barretts March Sale, Kanthaka was at first based in California with trainer Jerry Hollendorfer, for whom he won the GII San Vicente S. and GIII Laz Barrera...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 3rd-CD, $100K, Msw, 2yo, 5f, post time: 1:43 p.m. ET A Winchell Thoroughbreds/Steve Asmussen coupled entry receive a tepid 3-1 morning line nod in this salty looking special weight. Totalizer (Candy Ride {Arg}) is out of GSP Taxable (Tapit) from the family of GI Kentucky Oaks heroine Summerly (Summer Squall). Chileno (Gun Runner), co-owned with co-breeder Three Chimneys, was a $375,000 Keeneland September yearling. His MG1SW dam Wapi (Chi) (Scat Daddy) was Chile's champion 3-year-old filly of 2016. Wapi's now 3-year-old Curlin colt, who remains...

Several horse racing professionals in the U.S. have given their support to a U.S. House amendment that would ban the transport of American slaughter-bound horses across state lines and over the borders for butchering abroad. Led by U.S. Representatives, Troy Carter (D-LA), Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), and John Katko (R-NY), the amendment will be offered to the Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation in America (INVEST) Act, H.R.3684, which is slated to be on the House floor in the next few weeks. Last month, the Save...

Alex Campbell's Mean Mary (Scat Daddy), who dominated last year's GII New York S. by a front-running 5 1/4 lengths, faces 10 rivals as she seeks to defend her title in the 1 1/4-mile race at Belmont Park Friday. The 5-year-old mare was beaten just a neck when second to Rushing Fall (More Than Ready) in the GI Diana S. at Saratoga last summer and vied for the lead before tiring to seventh in the Nov. 7 GI Breeders' Cup F/M Turf. She went wire-to-wire to win the GIII Gallorette...

Spanish Loveaffair (Karakontie {Jpn}) seeks her graded stakes badge in Saturday's GIII Regret S. at Churchill Downs. Crossing the line first in her seasonal bow in Gulfstream's GIII Herecomesthebride S. Feb. 27, she was disqualified and placed fourth for interference and finished a non-factor sixth next out in Keeneland's GII Appalachian S. Apr. 3. Brendan Walsh saddles a live contender in Flown (Kitten's Joy). A third-out graduate at Keeneland in October, the chestnut was fifth in the Appalachian and missed by a neck to Gam's Mission (Noble Mission {GB}) in...

Steve Asmussen claimed the top prize of $50,000 for the third time in five years in the Maryland Jockey Club's $100,000 trainer bonus offered to horsemen for their participation in stakes races over Preakness weekend, May 14-15, at Pimlico Race Course. The Hall of Famer edged defending champion Mike Maker. Asmussen started 11 horses in 10 stakes over the two days, finishing with 54 points. On May 15, he ran first and second with Mighty Mischief (Into Mischief) and Jaxon Traveler (Munnings) in the GIII Chick Lang S. and also...

The odds-on selection making her seasonal debut in Saturday's GIII Gallorette S. at Pimlico, Mean Mary (Scat Daddy) gave her owner and breeder Alex Campbell, Jr. and trainer Graham Motion their second victory in four years in the race, adding to the success of homebred Ultra Brat (Uncle Mo) in bog-like conditions in 2018. The clear speed in the scratched-down field of five, Mean Mary did no work whatsoever to lead a couple of strides away from the gates and was put to sleep up front by her regular partner...