Motion Saddles Pair in H. Allen Jerkens

Among the horses in Saturday’s inaugural running of the $75,000 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes at Gulfstream Park are a pair from trainer Graham Motion, employing a strategy that would make the Hall of Fame conditioner proud.

Nicknamed ‘The Chief’ and ‘The Giant Killer’ for engineering the upsets of, among others, legends Secretariat and Kelso during his 65-year career, Jerkens, 85, is also well-known and respected for unconventional training methods that were more common years ago, including racing horses on short rest.

Taking a page from Jerkens’ book, Motion entered Buck Benny and Tattenham in the two-mile turf stakes, giving both horses their second start in less than a month at the Championship Meet which opened December 6.

“They’re doing fine. They both need the distance,” Motion said. “Buck Benny ran the other day, but it just wasn’t far enough for him, so I was thinking it would set him up for this stake. Tattenham, it’s the same thing. It’s the distance.”

Owned by Leonard Riggio’s My Meadowview Farm, Buck Benny raced only three times in 2014, all between late August and mid-October, winning a 1 ½-mile turf allowance in September at Delaware Park. The 5-year-old Dynamformer gelding rallied from an early bump to be seventh, beaten 4 ½ lengths, in a 1 1/16-mile optional claiming allowance at Gulfstream.

Tattenham, a 5-year-old Rock Hard Ten gelding owned by West Point Thoroughbreds, also experienced traffic trouble in his most recent start on January 9. Bumped and forced to steady in mid-stretch, he wound up sixth by 3 ¾ lengths in a 1 1/16-mile turf claiming event.

While the race will mark the stakes debut for Buck Benny, Tattenham is tested against stakes competition including four graded events. His best finish was a fourth in the 2013 Saranac (G3) at Saratoga Race Course.

“I think this is what they both need, quite frankly, more so with Buck Benny than Tattenham, perhaps,” Motion said. “The race that they ran in won’t look that good on paper, but I thought they were both good efforts, actually.”

Unitarian steps into the Jerkens after five straight tries in graded stakes, including back-to-back fourth-place finishes in the Red Smith (G3) and W.L. McKnight (G3) handicaps, the latter going 1 ½ miles on December 27 at Gulfstream Park.

“I thought he ran a good, even race. He never stopped trying, which gives you confidence that another half-mile won’t hurt him,” trainer Todd Pletcher said. “He’s a proven horse at a mile and three-eighths, a mile and a half, and he’s a big galloper so I actually think two miles might be kind of what he’s looking for.”

Owned by Robert S. Evans, the 5-year-old son of Pulpit came from well back to capture the Elkhorn (G2) last April, run over 1 ½ miles at Keeneland, and won twice at last winter’s Championship Meet at distances of 1 7/16 miles and 1 1/8 miles.

For his part, Pletcher saddled Chief Kitten to a one-length victory in the inaugural Belmont Gold Cup Invitational, a two-mile turf stakes last June at Belmont Park.

“It’s more about the horse wanting to go that far, really, than anything,” Pletcher said. “You don’t do too much differently. He’s got a good foundation of some mile and a half, mile and three-eighths races. You’re not looking to do anything real fancy. I think he’s the kind of horse that wants to run that far.”

Taking a two-race win streak into the Jerkens is Turkish, trained by Tino Attard for Lawrence Cordes. The 6-year-old gelding is making his first start outside Canada since finishing second in a maiden claiming race in March 2013 at Gulfstream.

Turkish ended 2014 rolling to an 11-length romp in a 1 5/8-mile allowance in November, and taking the 1 ¾-mile Valedictory (G3) three weeks later, both over the Polytrack at Woodbine. He has made three starts since being claimed by Attard for $40,000 last fall.

“This horse will go two, two and a half miles, and he never gets tired,” Attard said. “I jog him all the way around and he goes nice and easy. But, he’s a smart horse. He knows when he’s supposed to make the run. If there are two or three horses behind him the last half a mile, he likes to go by himself and then he goes. And, God bless him, he’s sound like a dollar.”

Also entered are graded stakes-placed Artic North and Royal Blessing, stakes-placed Reflecting, Sunshine Millions Turf Preview runner-up Tryer, Bingo Bango Bongo, Desvelo and Ocean Seven.

Source: Gulfstream Park