Maryland-based trainer Motion ready for big Preakness 2018 weekend

Over the course of Preakness weekend, trainer Graham Motion plans to send out nine horses in seven Pimlico stakes led by multiple Grade 2 winner Irish War Cry, the narrow 3-1 program favorite in Friday’s Pimlico Special.

Motion has seven horses entered on the 14-race Black-Eyed Susan Day program, including RMJ Stables’ Mihrab in the main event. Third in the Suncoast Stakes to open her 3-year-old season after running fourth in Laurel Park’s Gin Talking Stakes in her juvenile finale, she will break from Post 5 of 10 under jockey Jevian Toledo.

Also among Motion’s starters Friday are multiple stakes winner Almond Roca in the Miss Preakness; and Peach of a Gal, Secret Message and two-time Grade 3 winner Thewayiam in the $100,000 Hilltop.

Motion is based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Elkton, Md., located in the northeast corner of Maryland near the Pennsylvania border, about an hour’s drive from Pimlico. Ten wins shy of 2,300 for his career, he plans to enter three horses for Saturday’s Preakness program.

Just Howard, the Maryland-bred champion 3-year-old, turf horse and Horse of the Year in 2017, will make his next start in the 117th running of the $250,000 Maker’s Mark Dixie (G2), Ultra Brat in the $150,000 Stella Artois Gallorette (G3), and Say the Word in the $100,000 BMW James W. Murphy Stakes.

“Next to the Breeders’ Cup this is probably my favorite weekend,” Motion said. “Year in and year out we’re lucky enough to have participants in these races, and it’s something we certainly like to point for.”

Among Motion’s graded-stakes wins at Pimlico are the 2003 Dixie with Dr. Brendler and 2005 Gallorette with Film Maker. He has run six times in the Preakness, his best finishes coming with Icabad Crane (third in 2008) and Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom (second in 2011).

Motion, who turns 54 May 22, was born in Cambridge, England and worked for Hall of Fame trainer Jonathan Sheppard from 1985 to 1990. He then went to work for Bernie Bond in 1991, and took over the stable when Bond retired due to health issues in January 1993. Motion won his first race in March of that year with Bounding Daisy at Laurel.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Seabiscuit’s victory over 1937 Triple Crown winner War Admiral in the Pimlico Special, a match race Sports Illustrated called the “Race of the Century.”

“This weekend in general is a big weekend for us. We always concentrate on these races and I’ve been fortunate enough to win quite a few of them,” Motion said. “Getting started in Maryland [the Pimlico Special] is always a race that was high on the agenda from when I first started back at Laurel after Bernie retired. There’s a lot of prestige it in, for sure.”