Motion has busy week on tap

DEL MAR, Calif. – Starting with Stars Above Me in the featured seventh race here Friday and continuing right through Thanksgiving weekend, trainer Graham Motion will have plenty of action at Del Mar.

Motion left several horses in California following the Breeders’ Cup and is in the process of shipping several more out here, most for upcoming stakes. He entered both Appealing Cat and Lady of Gold in the Grade 3, $100,000 Red Carpet Handicap, formerly the Beverly Hills, for older females Saturday, and next week plans to run Alakazan Alakazan and Holiday Star in the Grade 2, $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup on Thanksgiving Day, Rainha Da Bateria in the Grade 3, $150,000 Jimmy Durante Stakes for 2-year-old fillies Nov. 29, and Strathnaver in the Grade 1, $300,000 Matriarch Stakes for older females Nov. 30.

“It’s probably going to be Strathnaver’s last race,” Motion said by phone Wednesday.

Strathnaver, 5, finished third but was moved up to second following a disqualification Nov. 2 in the Grade 2 Goldikova Stakes at Santa Anita. She is winless in six starts this year but has been second in three graded races, including a brutal nose loss in the Grade 1 Just a Game on the Belmont Stakes undercard in June.

The one-mile Matriarch, the highlight of the closing-day card of this 15-day meeting, also is expected to attract Discreet Marq, who won the Del Mar Oaks here in summer 2013.

The main event Nov. 29 is the Grade 1, $300,000 Hollywood Derby, in which California Chrome is set to make his first start on turf.

The Durante, known as the Miesque when it was run at Hollywood Park, is one of the supporting features on the Hollywood Derby card. Motion is eager to run Rainha Da Bateria after an unsatisfying trip in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, in which she finished ninth of 13.

“She had a dreadful trip,” said Motion. “She was about as wide as you could be wide.”

Rainha Da Bateria won two of her three starts prior to the Breeders’ Cup, most notably the Grade 3 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland on Oct. 8.

The Durante also is expected to include Conquest Harlanate, a Mark Casse-trained filly who also was fanned wide in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. She wound up 11th.

Motion is based during the winter at Palm Meadows in Florida, but said he also plans to have a 12-horse string at Santa Anita this winter with assistant Alice Clapham.

Turf Cup kicks off festival

The Turf Cup on Thanksgiving Day begins a four-day run of turf stakes racing that mirrors the autumn turf festival that previously was run at Hollywood Park.

In addition to the Motion pair of Alakazan Alakazan and Holiday Star, the 1 1/2-mile Turf Cup is expected to include Bench Light, Finnegans Wake, Irish Surf, Little Jerry, Power Foot, Starspangled Heat, Stoney Fleece, and the outstanding Midwest invader The Pizza Man, who already is bedded down here. Possibilities for the Turf Cup include Golden Soul, Mystery Train, and Patrioticandproud.

The Grade 2, $250,000 Seabiscuit Handicap at 1 1/16 miles on turf Nov. 28 is expected to include Avanzare, Big Bane Theory, Kaigun, Mr. Commons, Skyring, Tom’s Tribute, and Za Approval. Fredericksburg and Lil Bit O’Fun are strong possibilities, too.

The Seabiscuit was known as the Citation when it was run at Hollywood Park.