Miss Temple City to have similar campaign in 2017

DEL MAR, Calif. – The schedule that worked so well for Miss Temple City in 2016 is the template for her 2017 campaign.

After her season-ending victory Sunday in the Grade 1 Matriarch Stakes for older females at Del Mar, trainer Graham Motion said Miss Temple City would return to his barn at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland for a vacation, then get started in the spring at Keeneland, the site of two of her three Grade 1 victories this year.

After that, “we want to go to Royal Ascot and then hopefully here next year at this time,” Motion said.

Del Mar will host the Breeders’ Cup for the first time in 2017. Miss Temple City has traveled to Royal Ascot in both 2015 and 2016, and both Motion and Miss Temple City’s ownership group are eager to go again in 2017.

Motion called the Matriarch victory “really gratifying.”

“Because I know how good she is,” he said. “I hate seeing her get beat.”

Although Miss Temple City is leaving the state, Motion still will have a presence here. He will have a small string at Santa Anita during the winter, overseen by assistant Aimee Dollase.

Motion had a terrific Del Mar season, winning four races, all on turf, including three stakes. In addition to the Matriarch, he won the Grade 2 Seabiscuit for older grass runners with Ring Weekend and the Grade 3 Jimmy Durante for 2-year-old fillies with Journey Home.