Motion looms large in Laurel stakes

Saturday at Laurel Park, Graham Motion will try to get Colonia back up to stakes-level form while seeing if Nakamura really is of stakes quality.

Colonia starts in the $150,000 All Along over 1 1/16 miles on turf for fillies and mares, while Nakamura goes in the 1 ½-mile Japan Racing Association, a $100,000 grass race.

Motion’s Maryland-based stable is in heavy action throughout the card, with horses entered in five of the 12 races. Also carded are four other stakes: the Challedon, the Howard County, the Anne Arundel, and the Shine Again.

French import Colonia won the Grade 3 Valley View at Keeneland last fall and finished fourth in the Grade 1 American Oaks at Santa Anita in December, but didn’t race again until she turned in a flat performance making her 4-year-old daughter Sept. 2 in a $100,000 turf-route stakes at Parx Racing.

“She had some bone bruising, so we just gave her quite a bit of time off,” said Motion, adding that he wasn’t enthused about racing deep-closing Colonia over a rough, late-season course at Parx over which it was difficult to make up ground. “I wasn’t crazy about running there, but there are limited options this time of year and I needed to get her started somewhere.”

The Laurel course, too, can favor front-runners this time of year, but Motion said he took some heart from the races last Saturday, when the grass appeared to play fair.

Despite a full field of 14, the All Along is light on true front-running types. Ghouls Night Out could lead, with Frippery and Notapradaprice chasing the pacesetter through moderate fractions. Notapradaprice won a second-level allowance race in her only Laurel turf start and finished second in the same Parx stakes in which Colonia closed for fourth, but her price might be lower than her longer-term credentials merit.

Trainer Michael Dickinson and George Strawbridge’s Augustin Stable entered Lift Up and Theodora B., but Dickinson reported Thursday that Lift Up would be scratched in favor of a Monmouth Park stakes while Theodora B. runs at Laurel. Theodora B. has turned in subpar performances her last two starts, but her second June 16 in the $100,000 Big Dreyfus Stakes over the Laurel course fits the spot.

Meanwhile, Nakamura, a 4-year-old gelding by Motion’s Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom, could offer value in the Japan Racing Association despite his 3-for-3 record this season. Nakamura ran through a Maryland allowance condition and an open first-level allowance at Laurel in May and June and handled a class hike to a second-level allowance at Saratoga while stretching out in distance to 1 3/8 miles on Aug. 17. Nakamura came from last that day in a slow-paced race otherwise dominated by front-runners, making an inside middle move to reach contention and sustaining his run for the better part of five furlongs. Nakamura ran his final furlong in 11.04 seconds, his last three-eighths in a blistering 33.91.

“He’s quite a big horse and typical of how the Animal Kingdoms are going to be late developers,” Motion said. “I was most impressed with his last race, he’s done well between starts, and I’m not sure we’ve seen the best of him yet.”

Nakamura has three wins and a third over the Laurel course, the loss coming last fall in the Bald Eagle Derby, which was run over yielding turf and dominated by Channel Cat, a Grade 2 winner this summer.

Highland Sky, a Barclay Tagg-trained New York shipper, should take plenty of betting, having made his last eight grass starts in Grade 1 or Grade 2 stakes competition. Tagg, for what it’s worth, has one winner from 13 Laurel stakes starters dating to 1997.

Postulation, a real staying type, also merits respect making just the second start of his 7-year-old season.

Pair of juvenile stakes

So Street and Miss Jay McKay appear to be solid favorites in a pair of $100,000 turf-sprint stakes for 2-year-olds.

So Street has the outside post in the seven-horse Howard County. After a pair of modest dirt performances to start his career, he ran two strong turf races at Colonial Downs. So Street proved no match for Four Wheel Drive Aug. 31 in Colonial’s $100,000 Rosie’s Stakes, but finished a clear second. Four Wheel Drive, a Wesley Ward-trained first-time starter, turned in an impressive performance and is being aimed toward the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

Miss Jay McKay starts in the filly-restricted Anne Arundel and appears formidable. The Maryland-bred daughter of Hangover Kid won her career debut, a Laurel dirt race, as the odds-on favorite and was much the best going five furlongs on Monmouth turf in the Aug. 4 Colleen Stakes, where she was disqualified to third for interference. Her main rival is Queen of Shades, a sharp Monmouth turf-sprint maiden winner in her last start.

Wonderful Light descends

Wonderful Light looked on paper like he had a shot before he was scratched from the Grade 3 Frank de Francis Memorial Dash last weekend at Laurel, and that being the case is very much the horse to beat Saturday in the $75,000 Challedon Stakes. The Challedon, at seven furlongs on dirt, is restricted to horses that haven’t won a stakes race, and if anything marks a class drop for Wonderful Light, a five-time winner from 11 starts who handled high-level Saratoga allowance foes in his most recent race. Wonderful Light ran below his best in his lone seven-furlong start but has delivered at 6 ½ furlongs. He is cross-entered to run in the Mr. Prospector at Monmouth.

The $75,000 Shine Again has the same conditions as the Challedon but is restricted to fillies and mares. Ten are entered, and the race could not look more wide open.