Standard Deviation part of tough team in Tiller Stakes

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Graham Motion and jockey John Velazquez have teamed up to win four races from six mounts in the first part of the Churchill Downs meet.

Thursday, that team will turn its attention to Belmont Park where Velazquez will ride the Motion-trained Standard Deviation in the $80,000 Tiller Stakes, scheduled for 1 3/8 miles on turf. The Tiller drew a field of 13, led by Grade 1 winners Channel Maker and Sadler’s Joy.

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Standard Deviation, originally was trained by Chad Brown. He went 1 for 5 on dirt before Brown tried him on the turf last June at Monmouth Park, where he won the Tale of the Cat Stakes and the Jersey Derby. Later in the year, Standard Deviation finished third in both the Grade 2 Hill Prince and Grade 1 Hollywood Derby.

Following the Hollywood Derby, Standard Deviation was purchased privately by Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar. Motion got the horse in December and prepared him for the Group 1 Amir Trophy in Qatar, where he finished second under Oisin Murphy to French King, who was recording a repeat victory in that 1 1/2-mile race.

“The only thing that hurt him out there was the jock said he struggled a little around the turns going the wrong way and it cost him,” said Motion, noting that the Doha course was right-handed as opposed to the left-handed course of the United States. “Otherwise, he handled the mile and a half really well. He’s a very classy horse.”

Standard Deviation has a steady work tab since April 25 at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland. He drew post 1 for the Tiller Stakes.

“I wasn’t sure where I was going to bring him back,” Motion said. “He wouldn’t have been ready much before now, but he’s certainly ready to run again. For an overnight $80,000 listed race, it’s pretty darn competitive. I like the mile and three-eighths, and I like the inside draw.”

Conversely, Channel Maker drew post 13, the sixth time in his last 13 starts he’s drawn the outside post. Channel Maker, trained by Bill Mott, won the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in 2018 and the Grade 1 Man o’ War in 2019, both over the Belmont course. In his most recent start at Belmont, Channel Maker was beaten a half-length in the Joe Hirsch by Arklow in October.

Channel Maker has been most successful when he is able to be involved in a race early. That hasn’t been the case in either of his two starts this year, including an eighth-place finish in the Grade 2 Muniz Memorial at Fair Grounds in March.

Sadler’s Joy finished a nose in front of Channel Maker when those two ran third and fourth behind Zulu Alpha in the Grade 2 Mac Diarmida on Feb. 29 at Gulfstream. Sadler’s Joy, winner of the Grade 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga in 2017, won the Grade 3 Red Smith going 1 3/8 miles at Aqueduct last November.

The pace of the race is likely to come from Noble Indy or Paret. Noble Indy, trained by Todd Pletcher, is coming off a front-running score going nine furlongs on turf at Gulfstream in March. Paret, an Australian-bred trained by Chucky Lawrence, tried to steal the Point of Entry Stakes going 1 1/2 miles here last October. He finished second and has not run since.

The New York-bred Dot Matrix will look to bounce back from an 11th-place finish in the Muniz after rearing at the break. Prior to that, he won the Grade 3 John B. Connally Turf Cup at Sam Houston.

Current, who finished second behind Standard Deviation in last year’s Jersey Derby, comes out of a neck defeat when third in the Grade 2 Pan American on March 28 at Gulfstream.