Trainer
Graham Motion got the 17-day Fall Meeting off to a rousing start Friday
by saddling two winners, the second being Mrs. S.K. Johnston Jr.’s Hoofit (NZ) in the Stoll Keenon Ogden Phoenix (G3) by a nose over Aikenite.
The
victory carried a spot in the starting gate for the Sentient Jet
Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1) to be run November 5 at Churchill Downs, but
Hoofit is not nominated to the Breeders’ Cup program.
“I
don’t know all the implications (of supplementing),” Motion said. “But
it would be asking an awful lot of him and if anything he’d go in the
(Breeders’ Cup) Turf Sprint (G2).”
The Friday victory was the second in two starts for Hoofit on an all-weather surface after making his first 16 starts on grass.
“He
has been with us for a while, but it took him a long time to get to
us,” Motion said. “He was in California for a while after arriving from
New Zealand and he had lost some weight and he needed time to get over
that.”
Motion’s other victory Friday came in the fifth race with the 2-year-old filly Sweet Seventeen, who remained undefeated in two starts. Motion did not fare as well in the sixth race when Thursby, the half-brother to Kentucky Derby presented by YUM! Brands (G1) winner Animal Kingdom, finished 10th in a field of 12 juveniles going seven furlongs.
“It
was kind of puzzling,” Motion said of Thursby’s effort that followed a
last-place showing on grass in his debut, also at seven furlongs. “He
works well in the morning and has a nice way of going. With his
breeding, he’ll be better going two turns.”