Local Motive First Stakes Winner for Divining Rod

Bird Mobberley's Local Motive  dug in determinedly along the rail through the stretch Nov. 13 in the $100,000 James F. Lewis III Stakes at Laurel Park, holding off Beast Or Famine  by a head and becoming the first black-type winner for his sire Divining Rod  .

Ridden by J.D. Acosta for trainer John Salzman Jr., Local Motive ($8.20) completed the distance in 1:10.16 over a main track rated good. It was three lengths back to No Sabe Nada  in third.

Local Motive tracked the pace in third as Amidships  ran the opening quarter-mile in :21.98, pressed by Tops the Chart . The eventual winner forged a short lead after a half in :45.26 and was set down for a stretch drive as Beast Or Famine came rolling on the far outside in the six-furlong sprint.

Bred in Maryland by Wasabi Ventures Stables, Greenspring Mares, and Bowman and Higgins Stable out of the Not For Love  mare Wild For Love , Local Motive was making his sixth career start and fourth straight in a stakes. He also won the Aug. 2 Hickory Tree Stakes on the Colonial Downs turf.

Salzman hinted the $100,000 Maryland Juvenile for Maryland-bred/sired 2-year-olds at seven furlongs Dec. 4 at Laurel could be the next stop for the gelding.

"He's a nice horse. He was showing some ability," the trainer said. "I wasn't quite sure he was a stake horse, but I knew he had some ability. I think he might go on, especially the way he rated a little bit today. The next race is a Maryland-bred race and might not be quite as tough, but it's seven-eighths to we might get a better feel for it then."

Divining Rod is a son of Tapit   out of Precious Kitten , a grade 1-winning half sister to Kitten's Joy  . He won or placed in eight graded stakes, capturing the 2015 Coolmore Lexington Stakes (G3) and finishing third in the Xpressbet.com Preakness Stakes (G1) behind eventual Triple Crown winner American Pharoah  . As an older horse, he was second by a head to Connect   in the Cigar Mile Handicap (G1), runner-up to Noble Bird  in the Hagyard Fayette Stakes (G2), winner of the Polynesian Stakes at Laurel, and second to Sharp Azteca   in the Kelso Handicap (G2). He retired with a 5-4-5 record from 17 starts and earned $882,604. He stood the 2021 season at Country Life Farm for an advertised fee of $5,000, a fee that has remained the same since he entered stud in 2018.