Graham Motion crowding Matriarch Stakes with immense fire power
Trainer Graham Motion has started feeling good about Hollywood Park’s fall meet after his heavily favoured Sanagas straight from Maryland earned him a grade 1 win after a dominating performance over the Hollywood Turf Cup lineup.
Now the trainer fresh off a grade 1 win, strengthens his squad for the next Hollywood Park events, as he sends out three of his finest females to run in the $250,000 Matriarch Stakes over at Hollywood Park’s turf course on 25 November, 2011.
Graham Motion will also be sending out the last year winner of the Matriarch Stakes, Gypsy’s Warning, as the six year old mare will look to defend her title against 8 other fillies and mares in the 1 mile long turf race.
One other older filly which could stand in the way of Gypsy’s Warning from repeating her performance in the Matriarch is the 6-year-old Chris Block trained brown filly, Never Retreat, who was the Grade 1 winner of the First Lady Stakes at Keeneland this year.
The South African bred daughter of Mogok, out of mare Gypsy Queen by Royal Chalice, Gypsy’s Warning has had 4 starts this year on turf starting from Keeneland to Belmont Park to Monmouth Park and returning back to Keeneland for her last outing.
However, the grade 1 winning mare hasn’t produced a run worth remembering for, apart from a third place finish on the board in her penultimate race at Monmouth Park where she finished third to winner Romacaca and runner up Champagnelifestyle in the 1 1/16 miles long Miss Liberty Stakes.
The other two Graham Motion Matriarch Stakes hopeful is the 4-year-old filly Unbridled Humor, who in her 2 years in racing has raced in 6 races out of those she lost only two. Once in the Grade 1 Diana Handicap where she finished seventh and a runner up finish in her last outing in the Grade 3 Athenia Stakes.
The Kentucky bred 3-year-old bay filly, Summer Soiree will be the third runner to represent Graham Motion in the Matriarch Stakes.
The filly has done exceptionally well this season by winning two grade 3 races and visited the winner’s circle in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. She is coming off a fifth place finish in the Grade 1 QE II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.
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