Motion back again for stakes raid

ETOBICOKE, Ontario - When trainer Graham Motion comes to Woodbine, he usually makes some waves.

Motion won the Grade 3 Royal North Handicap here in 2000 and 2001 with Confessional and also captured the 2001 Seagram Cup Stakes with Trajectory, like Confessional a ship-in from Delaware. He will saddle Commendation in one of Sunday's supporting features on Atto Mile Day, the $285,500 Summer Stakes, a one-mile turf event for 2-year-olds.

Commendation, a son of Capote, is a half-brother to Grade 1 dirt winner Take Charge Lady. He finished up the track when he debuted in a sprint on the main track July 26 at Saratoga, before graduating in a 1 1/16-mile maiden special over the Saratoga turf Aug. 18.

Motion said he had reason to believe that Commendation would find his niche going long on the grass.

"When we ran him the first time, Todd Pletcher's really impressive colt won it," Motion recalled of a race won by Value Plus. "It seemed like a struggle for my horse, and I had a feeling he was going to need to run a little farther anyway. Although he's a half to Take Charge Lady, he's always looked like a turf horse to me - the way his action is, and because of the way he's made. I wouldn't say it was a big surprise next time, when he jumped up and won at Saratoga, although we weren't necessarily expecting him to win, either."

Also entered in the Grade 2 Summer are Grand Heritage, America America, Dynafire, Zakocity, Go Kitty Go, Bon Marie, Spider Canyon, Bachelor Blues, and Victory Light.

Dynafire will be well backed off his debut score, in a seven-furlong maiden special on the grass Aug. 10, for which he received a Beyer Figure of 84, the highest in the Summer lineup.

"He did it quite professionally," said Rachel Halden, an assistant to Dynafire's trainer, Roger Attfield. "He came up the rail and between horses."

Grand Heritage has won both of his turf starts for trainer Bill Mott, who sent him out to capture the Continental Mile Stakes two weeks ago at Monmouth.

America America, who is making her 11th start of the year, is running back just eight days after finishing third here in the Grade 3 Natalma Stakes.