English Bee kick starts Motion's day with win in James W. Murphy
BALTIMORE - Trainer Graham Motion exercised patience with English Bee this spring. He didn't have to be patient very long on Saturday at Pimlico, as the colt gave him an early-afternoon stakes score in the $100,000 James W. Murphy Stakes for 3-year-olds on the turf.
"It’s good to get off with a win," Motion, who is based in Maryland at the Fair Hill Training Center, said with a grin. "We run a lot of horses today - so now there's no pressure."
English Bee, a son of turf champion English Channel racing as a homebred for Calumet Farm, won twice from his first four starts while not missing the board. But then he finished fifth with a troubled trip in his stakes debut in the Columbia Stakes on March 9 at Tampa, beaten just 1 1/4 lengths by victorious Digital Age. That unbeaten colt came back to win the Grade 2 American Turf earlier this month at Churchill Downs - a race Motion elected to skip with English Bee in favor of waiting for a race closer to home.
"I thought he was really unlucky last time at Tampa," Motion said. "He got stopped coming off the turn right when he went to make his move. We all decided just to wait for this race. We decided to skip Churchill and wait for this. It paid off. He’s a real pro."
Real News, coming off a series of sprints, set the pace in the one-mile James W. Murphy under Joel Rosario, posting splits of 24.65 seconds for the quarter and 48.70 seconds for the half while prompted by Thomas Shelby on his hip. Meanwhile, English Bee and Jose Ortiz tracked the pace in third. English Bee swung three wide near the quarter pole to make his move, and stuck a head in front of Real News in upper stretch. Real News gamely battled back along the inside, and the two colts contested things to the wire, with English Bee edging clear by a half-length in the final yards. He stopped the clock in 1:35.60 on a turf course rated firm.
After the top two, it was 2 1/4 lengths back to Shootin the Breeze, who edged favored Current by three-quarters of a length for third. Current trailed the field of eight early after being bumped at the start, and made progress along the inside nearing the stretch before failing to seriously menace.