Wide trip costs Holiday Star win

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Graham Motion was still anguishing a bit over the heartbreaking defeat Holiday Star suffered in Wednesday’s John’s Call Stakes as he made the drive back to Saratoga from his home base at the Fair Hill Training Center late Friday morning. Holiday Star was beaten a couple of inches by the rail-skimming Tricky Hat after being hung wide from the outside post 6 in the 1 5/8-mile John’s Call.

“That was pretty brutal,” said Motion. “Watching it on TV in Maryland, I really thought he caught up. Obviously, the post position hurt us. It definitely made a big difference the way he got hung outside like that. You wouldn’t think post position meant that much in races at a mile and one-half or longer, but I’ve found more often than not, it does.”

Despite coming out on the short end of the closest of photos, Motion was very pleased with the performance he got from the lightly raced Holiday Star.

“I always felt he could compete in those types of races,” said Motion. “Granted, it wasn’t the toughest field around, but it was a big step for him.”

Motion, who is off to a hot start here this summer, has another big bullet to fire in Sunday’s seventh race, where he sends out the $1.3 million yearling purchase I’ll Show Me in a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight dash. I’ll Show Me is by Bernardini and is a half-sister to the multiple Grade 1 winner Proud Spell.

“I knew they paid a lot of money for her, but I didn’t realize they paid that much,” said Motion. “She’s a very straightforward filly to train, she’s done everything nicely, and she’s ready to run. Although I think she can show the type of foot it might take to win at this distance, she’s more of a two-turn sort of filly and likely to be more effective a little further down the road.”