Motion seeks meaningful win in Better Talk Now Stakes
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Graham Motion makes no bones about his desire to win the Better Talk Now Stakes, a one-mile turf race for 3-year-olds that will be run for the second time Monday at Saratoga.
Motion trained Better Talk Now, a multiple Grade 1 winner who earned $4.3 million and who, at age 16, gets turned out every day at the Fair Hill Training Center in northeastern Maryland, where Motion is based.
“I want to win the Better Talk Now – it’s on my bucket list,” Motion said.
Motion entered two horses in the $100,000 Better Talk Now but said he likely will run just Nucifera and scratch Tale of Life. Both horses are owned by Flaxman Holdings and were sent to him in July after racing in Europe.
Nucifera, a son of More Than Ready, won a listed stakes in France as a 2-year-old and finished second to Full Mast in a Group 3 stakes last September. Full Mast came back to win the Group 1 Grand Criterium via disqualification last October, a race in which Nucifera finished eighth.
In his lone start this year, Nucifera finished sixth in the Group 3 Prix Djebel in France. Make Believe, the runner-up in that race, came back to win the Group 1 Prix Le Parisien.
“They’ve been keeping some pretty strong competition for sure,” Motion said. “It figures as good a spot as I can find for the horse to have a condition; he’s already won a stakes.”
John Velazquez will ride Nucifera from post 7.
A Lot, trained by Bill Mott, is coming off runner-up finishes in the Manila Stakes at Belmont and the Grade 2 Hall of Fame Stakes at Saratoga. Mott is adding blinkers to his equipment in this spot, which is restricted to sophomores who have not won a stakes race at a mile or longer.
Offering Plan looks to be the stronger part of trainer Chad Brown’s uncoupled entry that includes Dujac.
KEY CONTENDERS
Nucifera (No Beyers)
◗ All of his races have been seven furlongs, but Motion believes the horse will appreciate added distance.
“Even though he’s just been going seven-eighths, I think the distance is not going to be an issue for him,” Motion said. “I’d imagine he probably wants two turns.”
◗ Gets Lasix for the first time.
A Lot (Last 3 Beyers: 89-84-87)
◗ Has a win and three seconds from five stakes tries and comes off a half-length loss to Takeover Target in the Hall of Fame Stakes here Aug. 7.
“He did get past everybody, but he didn’t finish it off,” said Mott, adding that he’s adding blinkers to “see if I can get him to focus a little more when he gets up beside horses.”
◗ Breaks from the rail after breaking from post 8 in an 11-horse field in the Hall of Fame.
Offering Plan (Last 3 Beyers: 82-71-78)
◗ Returned from a 10-month layoff with a 4 1/2-length victory against New York-breds, against whom he is 2 for 2.
◗ Was the beneficiary of a fast pace in his allowance win, a situation that might not be the case in this spot.
“I think he’s versatile enough; he’s got a big turn of foot,” Brown said.