Main Sequence Can Cap Big Season in BC Turf

As the trainer of Animal Kingdom  , Graham Motion has every reason to feel he was blessed to have had the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and Dubai World Cup (UAE-I)  hero in  his barn.

Turns out, he would have another reason to appreciate the 2011 3-year-old champion. While his star chestnut was training for his final start, Ascot's Queen Anne Stakes (Eng-I) in June 2013, Motion was sharing a yard with Flaxman Holdings' trainer David Lanigan, the conditioner of Main Sequence.

After a strong 3-year-old campaign that included a runner-up finish to Camelot in the 2012 Epsom Derby (Eng-I), Main Sequence was struggling to find his form at 4.

"I got a chance to know Main Sequence and saw him train quite a bit. I spoke with David about him every day," Motion recalled Oct. 29. "It was David who made the suggestion he come to the States. He felt  a change of scenery would do the horse good. He certainly was correct about that. (Main Sequence) has really taken to racing over here."

And how. The late-running Main Sequence is 3-for-3 in the U.S., all in extremely close grade I races on the East Coast this summer. He heads into the $3 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT) Nov. 1 as the leading U.S.-based hope. His task was made a little bit easier earlier in the morning Wednesday, with the announcement from Aidan O'Brien that defending Turf winner Magician   was scratched after coming up lame.

"That's terrible news for them," Motion said shortly after sending Main Sequence out for some gate work and a 1 1/2-mile gallop over the Santa Anita Park main track. "It's the sort of thing you live in dread of happening. It's such a helpless feeling because you have no control over it. Very nerve-wracking."

So far, all has gone well with the gelded son of Aldebaran, who shipped to Santa Anita Oct. 25 and has settled into his new environs at Barn 86 comfortably.

"He really seems to be doing well," Motion said.

Main Sequence will have a new jockey in the Turf, with Hall of Fame rider John Velazquez replacing Rajiv Maragh, who is out with a broken hand.

"Losing Rajiv is tough," said Motion, crediting him with much of Main Sequence's success. "He has a great rapport with the horse, and that will not be easy to replace."

This year's Turf comes 10 years after Motion, who turned 50 in May, won the race for the first time with his initial Breeders' Cup starter, Better Talk Now. And it comes for a renowned racing entity, the Niarchos family's Flaxman Holdings, whose successes in the Breeders' Cup includes the great champion Miesque. Flaxman began sending Motion horses to train in the U.S. since shortly after the death of its main U.S. trainer, Bobby Frankel, in 2009.

Motion, an English-born ex-pat who grew up in a family heavily involved in bloodstock trading, says the success of the Niarchos family in European racing was something he greatly admired.

With Flaxman's homebred, however, Motion said he felt no additional pressure to get Main Sequence to perform since all his connections wanted to see was the horse regain his earlier form.

Main Sequence had his U.S. career debut delayed with a serious illness over the winter.

"He was quite sick, he had a touch of pneumonia, actually," Motion said. "It's a funny thing to say, but it actually turned out to be blessing in disguise. It gave him a chance to get acclimated, and we got to know him, too."

Because of the illness, Motion also decided to keep him closer to his Fair Hills training location in Maryland rather than ship to Arlington International Racetrack for the Arlington Million (gr. IT), which was the original plan.

Sent off at odds of 8-1 in his first U.S. start, the United Nations (gr. IT) July 6 at Monmouth Park, Main Sequence spotted the field nearly seven lengths while racing seventh before rallying to win by a neck over Turf rival Twilight Eclipse.

Main Sequence returned Aug. 17 with a late-running head victory over another Turf rival, Imagining, in the Sword Dancer Invitational (gr. IT), following a slow start at Saratoga Race Course. The race carried added significance for Motion because Better Talk Now won it on his way to the Breeders' Cup title.

Main Sequence completed his trifecta in the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (gr. IT) Sept. 27 at Belmont Park, scoring by a neck over Twilight Eclipse again, with Imagining a close third.

Those wins make Motion confident Main Sequence will handle the Turf's 1 1/2-mile distance and the firm turf course at Santa Anita.

"You'd think three tight races like that would take something out of him, but if it has, I can't tell it," Motion said. "I know it's a cliche, but I wouldn't trade places with anyone. I'll be disappointed if he doesn't run a big race."

Motion isn't sure how he'll handle a strong group of overseas raiders led by Flintshire, Telescope, and Brown Panther.

"I think we'll be fourth choice," Motion said. "He hasn't run against this caliber of horse all year. Not that I don't think the horses he has run against are not good horses because they are. But it's a very compeititive group, and he's never beaten them before."

Were Main Sequence to prevail in the Turf, he would have four consecutive grade I victories. Depending on how a couple of other races, including the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) turns out, would his chestnut gelding be a candidate for Horse of the Year?

"I'm not going there," Motion says with a laugh.