Motion playing it safe with Irish War Cry

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – On Sunday morning, trainer Graham Motion tweeted a photo of a pony done up in bubble wrap with the caption, “Irish War Cry looks good this morning.”

While humorous, the tweet truthfully encapsulated the fragile nature of Thoroughbreds, especially 3-year-olds on the Triple Crown trail.

Six years ago, Motion won the Wood Memorial with Toby’s Corner. On the day he was scheduled to ship to Churchill Downs, Toby’s Corner turned up lame and didn’t make the Kentucky Derby.

“We never got to the bottom of it, to be honest,” Motion said. “The owners were already on their way. They were from Florida, and they were driving from Ocala. That’s the game, right? It’s crazy.”

So crazy, in fact, that Motion won that year’s Kentucky Derby with Animal Kingdom, who was making his first start on dirt.

Fast forward six years. Motion had driven himself crazy trying to figure out what happened to Irish War Cry in the Fountain of Youth at Gulfstream on Feb. 4, when he pressed the pace and dropped back to finish seventh, beaten 21 3/4 lengths.

Irish War Cry redeemed himself Saturday with a convincing 3 1/2-length victory in the Grade 2 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct to regain his standing as a significant player in the Kentucky Derby on May 6 at Churchill Downs.

A relaxed third going into the first turn, Irish War Cry moved into second about 5 1/2 furlongs out and seemed to sit comfortably off the pacesetting Battalion Runner before running away from that one in the final furlong.

Irish War Cry, a son of Curlin, ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:50.91 and earned a 101 Beyer Speed Figure, matching the number he earned in winning the Grade 2 Holy Bull in January. He is now 4 for 5.

“He looked like he drew away pretty comfortably, I thought,” Motion said Sunday from Keeneland. “[Jockey Rajiv Maragh] said he could have done anything he wanted to do yesterday; very push-button. That’s the horse I thought he could be.”

Irish War Cry returned to the Fair Hill Training Center on Saturday night and, though he didn’t eat up, Motion said, “That’s not completely surprising. He had a long day yesterday.”

Motion said Irish War Cry likely will do all of his serious training at Fair Hill before shipping to Churchill Downs. Motion said Irish War Cry will have only one workout prior to the Kentucky Derby and likely will ship to Louisville, Ky., the Monday of Derby week.

“I don’t want to introduce him to that whole Churchill scene any earlier than I have to,” Motion said.

The recent history of Wood Memorial winners in the Kentucky Derby is not good. Fusaichi Pegasus, in 2000, was the last horse to win both. Since 2004, the best result in the Derby for a Wood winner has been Wicked Strong and Frosted, who finished fourth in 2014 and 2015. Overall, the Wood hasn’t produced a top-three Derby finisher since Funny Cide and Empire Maker ran 1-2 in 2003.

It remains to be seen who else from the Wood Memorial field joins Irish War Cry in Kentucky. Runner-up Battalion Runner and third-place finisher Cloud Computing both have 40 qualifying points, presumably enough to get into the field. Though Vinnie Viola, the owner of Battalion Runner, said immediately after the race that he’d be inclined to skip the Derby, that stance has changed, according to trainer Todd Pletcher.

“I thought he ran well. I think you can make an argument for some reasons why he could move forward from having that race,” Pletcher said. “First time a mile and an eighth, first out in 64 days, looked like he might have gotten a little tired the last part. I thought overall it was a good, solid effort. The real key would be how he comes out of it and how he trains, especially how he likes the surface at Churchill.”

Pletcher said Battalion Runner will ship to Kentucky on the first available flight from New York.

Cloud Computing has run three times in eight weeks and was beaten seven lengths in the Wood. Owners Seth Klarman and William Lawrence and trainer Chad Brown also have Blue Grass Stakes runner-up Practical Joke for the Derby.

Brown said Sunday that the Derby “is not ruled out completely” for Cloud Computing, and he will evaluate the horse and his Wood performance more before making a decision.

“When the real running started, he didn’t have as much as the top two,” Brown said. “I haven’t made any decision regarding his future and probably won’t for at least another week.”