Mean Mary gives Motion one last shot at Beverly D.

Trainer Graham Motion always has wanted to win the Beverly D. Stakes. It’s now or never.

With Arlington set to cease racing following its 2021 meeting, this figures to be the final Beverly D., and Motion has sent in heavy artillery. Mean Mary is one of the best older grass mares in North America and stands a solid chance of going wire to wire in this 1 3/16-mile fixture.

The primary opposition comes from Ireland in Santa Barbara, who seeks to become just the second 3-year-old to win the 1 3/16-mile Beverly D. Euro Charline, who shipped from England as a 3-year-old, won the 2014 renewal.

Trainer Chad Brown has won this race six times overall and an astounding five years in a row, often running multiple live horses, but this year he has but one starter, Lemista, who exits a dull eighth-place finish as a 7-2 shot in the Grade 1 Diana on July 17 at Saratoga.

“No idea what happened,” Brown said. “She came back and worked fabulous, so we’ll draw a line through it and hope she regains herself.”

Lemista races for the first time on Lasix, which is permitted in the Grade 1 races Saturday at Arlington because they’re not part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series this year. Lemista, an Irish import, had been second to Grade 1-class Harvey’s Lil Goil making her North American debut May 8 in the Beaugay Stakes. Her overseas form, while strong, wasn’t close to top class. The filly improved as a 3-year-old of 2020 and in March that year beat Even So, a Group 1 winner later that year, but Even So is the only truly good horse Lemista beat while racing in Ireland.

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Santa Barbara, who carries 117 pounds, six fewer than her older rivals, looks like a more formidable entrant. Though she raced just once at age 2, winning a maiden race, Santa Barbara went favored in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket in her 3-year-old debut, and after a commendable fourth-place finish there, was favored again in the Oaks at Epsom, where she was beaten more than 20 lengths.

“The mile and a half at Epsom was plenty far for her,” trainer Aidan O’Brien said, offering a potential excuse.

In any case, Santa Barbara finally lived up to her hype rallying stoutly in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes to just miss defeating Thundering Nights, who closed hard and almost ran down Mean Mary at Belmont Park in her previous race. Sent to New York, Santa Barbara had to overcome stretch traffic but mowed down her opposition when swung into the clear by jockey Ryan Moore, winning the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks impressively. Runner-up Con Lima returned to win well last weekend at Saratoga.

“We always thought a lot of her,” said O’Brien, who is eying the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf with Santa Barbara. “She’s a filly with a lot of speed. We thought she’d do well coming back at a shorter trip. She won nicely at Belmont, and she’s done everything we asked of her.”

Mean Mary, racing for the first time since a somewhat disappointing seventh-place finish in the BC Filly and Mare Turf, won the Gallorette at Pimlico in her 2021 debut and was a game winner of the New York over Thundering Nights three weeks later.

“This was a race I had on the radar for her since the beginning of the season,” said Motion, who trains Mean Mary for her breeder, Alex Campbell.

Motion said a virus ran through his barn at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, sickening 20 percent to 30 percent of his horses. Mean Mary showed signs of illness and missed one intended breeze in late July but never actually got sick and returned with a strong work Aug. 5, officially listed as one mile.

“I had to hold off working her, but she never actually had anything, and we got lucky. She really worked seven-eighths and galloped out a mile, and she could not have worked any better than that,” Motion said.

Regular rider Luis Saez comes in to ride Mean Mary, who should go straight to the lead from an inside draw. Whether she controls a slow pace or is pushed depends on one horse, Naval Laughter, who has the pace to keep up with Mean Mary if she desires.

Chris Davis, who trains Naval Laughter, has focused on getting the filly to rate and relax, and when she upset the Modesty here last month, jockey Sophie Doyle was able to settle her off the pace. If that’s the tack taken again Saturday, Mean Mary could be gone – giving Motion the Beverly D. win he’s coveted.