Sam-Son Farm well armed with two Queen's Plate contenders

Sam-Son Farm’s breeding program has given it five victories in the Queen’s Plate, and the operation looks to add to that total on Saturday at Woodbine with two homebreds from prominent families. Sam-Son’s Plate entrants Say the Word and Strike Me Down are both based at Fair Hill with trainer Graham Motion.

“It’s definitely a race that’s been on my radar, a race that I’d love to say I’ve won,” Motion said. “Those historic races like the Queen’s Plate, those are the ones that you’d love to win. I’m very fortunate to have these horses for Sam-Son, two legitimate horses. It’s exciting.”

Say the Word, a gelded son of More Than Ready, is out of the unraced Giant’s Causeway mare Danceforthecause. The mare’s second dam is Sam-Son’s great Sovereign Award and Eclipse Award champion Dance Smartly, a Canadian Triple Crown winner. Dance Smartly, a half-sister to leading sire Smart Strike, went on to produce a pair of Queen’s Plate winners in Scatter the Gold and Dancethruthedawn, who was a Grade 1 winner and champion.

Say the Word was winless in his four starts at 2, and Motion said he returned a better horse at 3. In three starts this year, Say the Word has a maiden win at Gulfstream and a third in an allowance at Woodbine.

“He was a horse we liked early on as a 2-year-old, and then he was slightly disappointing in the afternoon,” Motion said. “After we gave him a break over the winter and gelded him, I think it really improved him.”

Strike Me Down, by leading sire Tapit, is out of the multiple graded stakes-winning Smart Strike mare Strike Softly, the dam of graded winner Golden Sabre. It is the family of Grade 1 winner and Canadian champion Wilderness Song.

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