Motion will soon celebrate birthday, 2,000th win

Graham Motion is inching closer to both his 51st birthday and career win No. 2,000. The birthday, which is Friday, likely will spark the first celebration, but the second shouldn’t be far behind.

As of Wednesday morning, Motion had 1,996 North American victories. By any measure, that’s a lot of wins, but Motion has a large and powerful stable based in Fair Hill, Md., and there should be many more winners in the months and years ahead.

When Motion considered his approaching milestone this week, it made him think back to 1993, when he took over the stable of his employer, Bernie Bond, upon his retirement. Bond had won 19 races the prior year and 34 in 1991.

“I haven’t really thought about it much, but that number of wins really puts things in perspective,” Motion said. “When we started out, it was just me; my wife, Anita; and my assistant, Adrian Rolls. My wife actually had a second job working for Katie Voss.”

Motion’s stable has grown mightily. He now has 100 employees and approximately 140 horses. Rolls is still his assistant, but Anita has stopped moonlighting.

Motion’s stable has earned purses of more than $93 million, placing him 21st all time among trainers. He has won more than 100 races in seven of the last eight years.

One of Motion’s early success stories was Better Talk Now, whom he trained from 2002 to 2009. Better Talk Now earned more than $4.3 million.

His other major winners include Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom, the champion 3-year-old male of 2011, and Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Main Sequence, who was undefeated last year and named both champion turf horse and older male of 2014.

“What catches my attention is that when I got in, I was following Baffert and Mott and Zito and Lukas,” Motion said. “It’s kind of hard to grasp that we now compete in the same races with them. I still find it hard to believe.”

Motion has set tentative schedules for his top turf horses, Main Sequence and Ring Weekend.

Main Sequence has yet to have a timed workout since his seventh-place finish in the Dubai Sheema Classic on March 28, but Motion said he is doing well and is being pointed to the Grade 1 United Nations at Monmouth Park on July 5. Main Sequence won the United Nations last summer in his U.S. debut after being sent to Motion by the Niarchos family.

Motion said Main Sequence likely will follow a similar schedule as last year, which after the United Nations could include starts in either the Arlington Million or Sword Dancer, the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic, and the Breeders’ Cup.

“If we are fortunate enough to get through the Breeders’ Cup, I would love to go back to Dubai with him next winter,” Motion said. “This year’s race just did not shape up for him well. I would love to give it another go.”

Ring Weekend won the Grade 1 Kilroe Mile at Santa Anita in his 4-year-old debut in March. He has since missed some time with a foot problem.

“He had a foot abscess, and we missed several weeks with him,” Motion said. “He’s doing better now, and I’d like to send him out west for the Shoemaker Mile.”

The Grade 1 Shoemaker is a one-mile turf race at Santa Anita on June 13.