Mean Mary to be freshened with eye to summer

Trainer Graham Motion said he won’t mind giving Mean Mary a little bit of a break following her one-length victory in Saturday’s Grade 3, $100,000 Orchid Stakes, her third victory in as many starts at the meet.

“She had five races in succession since [September], if I want to have her around for the end of this year, I want to have her fresh that’s why I backed off her after the last race,” said Motion, referring to her three-length in the Grade 3 La Prevoyante on Jan. 25.

Motion ran Mean Mary in the Orchid after it became apparent that graded stakes at Keeneland were not going to be run in April. Now, Motion hopes he has a filly good enough to compete in Grade 1 stakes like the Diana or Beverly D, two of the elite races in the filly and mare turf division typically run in July and August at Saratoga and Arlington Park, respectively.

“I don’t mind if I don’t run her before then to be honest,” Motion said.

Motion was quite impressed with Mean Mary’s performance in the Orchid, in which she led throughout while being tracked intently by the two-time graded stakes winner Gentle Ruler, whom Mean Mary frowned upon in the stretch.

“I think it was a stiffer test for her and she handled it really well,” Motion said. “I didn’t think she would get an easy lead and I don’t think she did. She handled the pace scenario which is always a worry when you’re a front-runner and she gave quite a bit of weight to a couple of them.”

Mean Mary covered the 1 3/8 miles in 2:11.73 and earned a 97 Beyer Speed Figure.

Motion, who is in Maryland, credited his assistant Alice Clapham with getting Mean Mary prepared. Motion said he would leave Mean Mary and the bulk of his stable in Florida with Clapham until he feels the time is right to move horses north to Maryland.

Trainer Brendan Walsh is also hopeful that there are more prestigious events this year for La Signare and Zofelle, his fillies that ran 1-2 in the $100,000 Sand Springs Stakes. Though Zofelle was favored, she ran into some traffic trouble in upper stretch while La Signare had clear sailing and showed a strong turn of foot that carried her to the three-quarter-length victory.

“La Signare had been threatening to do that for a while if she got the right setup, which she did yesterday,” Walsh said Sunday morning. “The other filly got in a little bit of traffic trouble turning for home, I don’t know if it cost her the race or not, but she ran really, really well. Going in I didn’t think there was a whole lot between them. Hopefully, they can go on to bigger things once we get going again.”

Walsh, who would normally be moving his stable to Kentucky, said those fillies and the remainder of his stable would remain in Florida for the time being.

La Signare earned an 88 Beyer Speed Figure for the performance.