Motion mulls which Royal Ascot race best for Miss Temple City

Trainer Graham Motion has lined out travel plans for Miss Temple City’s voyage to England later this month for the Royal Ascot meet, but which race she starts in overseas is still being debated, he said on Saturday.

Miss Temple City is under consideration for both the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes on Tuesday, June 20, and the Group 2 Duke of Cambridge on Wednesday, June 21. Both races are for older horses at a mile, with the Duke of Cambridge restricted to fillies and mares. In either spot, she will be ridden by Edgar Prado, said Motion. Miss Temple City is scheduled to fly out of Indianapolis on June 13.

Motion said the race decision figures to be made while he is in England. “I’m going to wait and see,” he said Saturday. “I’m having soul searchings about it. If she runs in the easier race, in the Group 2, she has to carry 132 pounds or 133, I believe, which is a lot of weight. We carried it last year. I don’t think people realize that.

“If she runs in the Queen Anne, which is obviously a much tougher race against the boys, she gets a break in the weights. She carries 123, I think, because she’s a filly against the colts. So, that’s a 10-pound shift in weights.”

There are also other factors to debate.

“I think part of it, too, will depend on who’s running,” Motion said. “It will depend on the weather. Last year it was very soft. I’d like to avoid that if possible. If it looks like it might be fast on Tuesday and soft on Wednesday, that might sway my decision. I think it might be a real last-minute decision.”

Miss Temple City worked six furlongs in 1:12.60 at her Fair Hill Training Center base Saturday and will have one more move at the Maryland facility before she ships, said Motion. Miss Temple City is scheduled to travel to Keeneland on June 11 and remain there on June 12 before flying out with Royal Ascot-bound horses from the barn of trainer Mark Casse.

Miss Temple City has won two Grade 1 races against males and in her last start Dec. 4 she captured the Grade 1 Matriarch at Del Mar. She is an earner of $1.4 million who races for The Club Racing, Needle In A Haystack, and Sagamore Farm.

“She’s the best filly I ever trained,” said Motion.