Hollywood: Lucky Chappy will try CashCall Futurity

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Trainer Graham Motion won the Hollywood Turf Cup last weekend with Sanagas, was to take three shots at the Matriarch Stakes on Friday, and will seek another Grade 1 race at Hollywood Park before the meet is out when he sends Lucky Chappy west for the $750,000 CashCall Futurity on Dec. 17

The Futurity will mark the first race on the main track for Lucky Chappy, who was fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and third in the Bourbon Stakes at Keeneland. The CashCall Futurity would be his third start in the United States since arriving from Italy.

“Numbers-wise, the Breeders’ Cup 2-year-old turf race came up very strong,” Motion said Thursday morning at Hollywood Park. “The race here has a big purse. He’s a lightly raced horse. It seems like a logical thing to do. He was a little unlucky in the Breeders’ Cup. He didn’t save any ground. He gave us encouragement to take another shot.”

Motion and his wife, Anita, flew to California with their two children Wednesday night for a brief family weekend vacation centered around the Matriarch Stakes, in which Motion was to send out Gypsy Warning, Summer Soiree, and Unbridled Humor.

Motion said that, back home at the Fair Hill training center in Maryland, he was making significant progress with his two top 3-year-olds, Animal Kingdom and Toby’s Corner, both of whom are galloping 1 1/2 miles a day, Motion said.

Animal Kingdom, the Kentucky Derby winner, has not raced since a rough trip in the Belmont Stakes. He emerged from that race with a very small fracture in his left hind leg.

Toby’s Corner has not raced since capturing the Wood Memorial in April. The week of the Kentucky Derby, he was found to be off in his left hind leg. Though he was lame, Toby’s Corner never was found to have anything seriously amiss, Motion said.

“He had three bone scans,” Motion said. “That’s the only thing that concerns me, that it could flare up again. We don’t know what it was.”

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