Zipse: Highly Motivated is getting better with every start

Highly Motivated, a main player in one of last year’s best Kentucky Derby preps, is back.

The handsome 4-year-old son of Into Mischief accelerated away from his talented stablemate Pipeline in the early stretch on his way to a pleasing 1 3/4-length win in the $400,000 Monmouth Cup (G3) Saturday at Monmouth Park.

The first of four graded-stakes victories in the afternoon for rider Flavien Prat and trainer Chad Brown, Highly Motivated covered the 1 1/8 miles 1:46.53. The final time broke the previous track record of 1:46.80 set 37 years ago by the champion Spend a Buck in 1985, but that did not last long as Cyberknife ran .29 seconds faster in his hard-fought Haskell win later in the card.

Clearly the Monmouth Park track was egregiously fast. Still, it was a very nice performance by the homebred of Klaravich Stables and good to see.

The 2021 edition of the Blue Grass brought the venerable race at Keeneland back to Grade 1 status, and with good reason.

The winner, Essential Quality, went on to win the Belmont and Travers (G1) on his way to a second Eclipse Award. The third-place finisher, Rombauer, won the Preakness in his next start. But what of the runner-up?

Leaving the soon-to-be Preakness winner well behind in third. Essential Quality and Highly Motivated engaged in a memorable, nearly race-long duel that was ultimately won by a neck by the champion. Four weeks before the Kentucky Derby, it turned out to be one of the best races of 2021.

Hounded every step of the way by Essential Quality, it was an excellent performance by Highly Motivated in his first race around two turns.

Perhaps the hard-fought stretch duel took something out of him, or maybe the 10 furlongs of the Kentucky Derby was a little beyond his sweet spot at the time. For whatever reason, his run on the first Saturday in May left much to be desired.

Fading out of it in the early stretch at Churchill Downs, he was beaten by 11 lengths and finished smack dab in the middle of the 19-horse field. He would not run again in 2021.

While the stallions Essential Quality and Rombauer never made it to the track for their 4-year-old season, Highly Motivated is working his way back to elite company. He is not there yet, but Saturday’s performance demonstrates that he’s once again ready for bigger and better things – and this time he’s taking it slowly.

Sidelined for almost a year after his run in the Kentucky Derby, he returned on April 16 to rally late and finish fourth in an allowance sprint at Keeneland. Six weeks later he earned a hard-fought allowance victory going one mile at Belmont Park.

It should be noted that in that neck victory at Belmont he defeated Stage Raider. Also trained by Brown, the half-brother to Justify was a good-looking allowance winner on Saturday at Saratoga in his first start since the clash with Highly Motivated.

In earning his first career graded-stakes victory, Highly Motivated became the 51st-graded stakes winner overall for his great sire Into Mischief.

Out of the Warrior's Reward mare Strong Incentive, he also improved his career record to 4-2-1 from nine starts and raised his lifetime earnings to $617,375.

No decision has been made on where Highly Motivated will go from here, but for now it is good to see that the horse who ran so well in defeat against Essential Quality in last year’s Blue Grass is back to his old self.

Or perhaps, as he has been getting better with every start, Highly Motivated can be even finer this year.