Scratched: Motion takes Mission of Joy out of Beverly D.

New Kent, Va.

Mission of Joy, who had been cross-entered for graded turf stakes Saturday at Woodbine and Sunday at Colonial Downs, instead will stay on the sideline until Aug. 31.

“We have scratched Mission of Joy today,” trainer Graham Motion said, referring to the $500,000 Beverly D. Stakes (G2) Sunday in Virginia. “(She) will go to the Ladies Turf at Kentucky Downs instead.”

Click here for Colonial Downs entries and results.

That Grade 3 race covers one mile on the rolling turf course near the Kentucky-Tennessee border, and it is worth $1.5 million.

Motion first waited out the rainy weather brought on by tropical storm Debby. Then he said he would decide Saturday where to send Mission of Joy, a 4-year-old Kitten’s Joy filly owned by Ryan Zabrowski’s RyZan Sun Racing and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables. That virtually eliminated the possibility of sending her from Motion’s Fair Hill home base in Maryland to Saturday’s Canadian Stakes (G2) at Woodbine.

Even though the turf course was expected to be good and maybe even firm Sunday at Colonial Downs, Motion decided instead to wait 20 more days, giving Mission of Joy seven weeks since her sixth-place finish last out in the Diana (G1) at Saratoga.

Mission of Joy’s exit leaves the 1 3/16-mile Beverly D. with just five entrants for the second year in a row. Moira, who was second in the Diana, was made the 9-5 favorite on the original morning line. Last year’s winner Fev Rover was 2-1. Recent Texas stakes victor Libban at 7-2, Nadette at 8-1 and Neecie Marie at 10-1 fill out the field.

The Beverly D. is scheduled to go at 5:50 p.m. EDT as the 10th of 12 races on the card that was pushed back 24 hours to let everything dry out from Thursday and Friday’s rain. The featured Arlington Million (G1) is set for 6:40 p.m.