Motion Hopes to Stay Hot in Matriarch

Miss Temple City will look to carry trainer Graham Motion's scorching streak on the Del Mar turf into the final day of the seaside racetrack's fall meet in the $300,000 Matriarch Stakes (gr. IT) Dec. 4.

The grade I-winning daughter of Temple City   will catch her best distance in the mile grass test, but will also make her Del Mar debut. The Maker's 46 Mile (gr. IT) and Shadwell Turf Mile (gr. IT) winner made her Southern California debut last time out with a fifth-place run in the Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT) at Santa Anita Park and Motion decided to keep her on the West Coast for the Matriarch.

"She was beaten 2 1/4 lengths in the Breeders' Cup and was a bit compromised," Motion said. "(Jockey) Edgar (Prado) said his only regret was he could have gotten her a bit more settled early, but the Breeders' Cup Mile was a really deep race. It probably came down to who got the best trip."

Motion said Miss Temple City took to the Del Mar grass well Nov. 26, when she covered five furlongs in 1:02 2/5 in her only post-Breeders' Cup drill.

"She handled it well," Motion said. "We sent her down from Santa Anita, because we wanted to work her on the turf and she hasn't worked on the dirt since she was a 2-year-old. I was concerned with possibly not being able to work on the turf at Santa Anita."

Motion has entered horses in three of the four graded turf races at Del Mar this fall and also has Hayabusa One in the Dec. 3 Hollywood Derby (gr. IT). In those three, he's won two—Ring Weekend in the Seabiscuit Handicap (gr. IIT) and Journey Home in the Jimmy Durante (gr. IIIT)—and was just a nose back of Nuovo Record with Arles in the Red Carpet Handicap (gr. IIIT).

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"It's always nice to be able to ship to the West and be competitive," Motion said. "I certainly thought my horses would run well in those races, but it's nice to see it all come together.

"If anything, the rain last weekend favored our horses a little bit. The fact that it's had some rain on it in the last week—it makes it a fairer course."

What Miss Temple City will have to overcome Sunday, however, is the widest post in the field of 12, just outside of fellow grade I winner and main challenger Time and Motion—a Phillips Racing Partnership homebred—who will be making her first start against older fillies and mares for trainer Jimmy Toner.

“It’s a concern, but if any horse can handle it, she’s the horse that can," Motion said of Miss Temple City's outside post. "She naturally places herself in the races."

Time and Motion's last six starts have all been against her age group, but it's hard to knock her record. Beginning with a maiden-breaking score at Gulfstream Park in March, she's won five of her last six contests, with her only loss a half-length second behind Canadian Horse of the Year Catch a Glimpse in the Belmont Oaks (gr. IT).

The Tapit   filly has bounced back from the Belmont Oaks impressively, with tight scores in the Lake Placid (gr. IIT) and Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (gr. IT) in her last two starts.

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Outside of the two top-level winners, the field is littered with other graded stakes-tested females. Eight of the 12 have won graded events, including grade II winners Zindaya, Nancy From Nairobi, and Prize Exhibit. Grade III winners Stays in Vegas, Roca Rojo, and Decked out are also included.

Zindaya, the last out winner of the Goldikova Stakes (gr. IIT) at Santa Anita, heads a three-horse contingent from Chad Brown, who will also send last-out Athenia Stakes (gr. IIIT) winner Roca Rojo and French group III victress Mexican Gold.