MD-Based Trainer H. Graham Motion A Finalist For Horse Racing Hall Of Fame
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- H. Graham Motion, a Maryland-based horse trainer and winner of more than 2,500 races, is a finalist for the National Museum of Racing's Hall of Fame, the organization announced Wednesday.
In 14,253 starts dating back to 1993, Motion, whose Herringswell Stables is based at the Fair Hill Training Center in Cecil County, has won 2,568 races and more than $136 million in purse money.
Motion guided Animal Kingdom, at 20-1, to a Kentucky Derby win in 2011, the colt's first race on the dirt. The 3-year-old made a late charge in the Preakness Stakes but finished half a length behind the winner, Shackleford, and was a distant sixth in the Belmont Stakes.
After second-places finishes in the Breeders' Cup Mile and Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap, Animal Kingdom was again victorious in the 2013 Dubai World Cup.
Another Motion trainee, Irish War Cry, was one of the favorites in the 2017 Derby after winning Holy Bull Stakes and Wood Memorial Stakes. But he faded after getting near the front of the pack for the stretch run, settling for 10th place. He came agonizingly close in the Belmont Stakes, leading the most of the way before tiring and getting passed by Tapwrit. Irish War Cry held on to place.
The colt's last graded-stakes triumph came at Pimlico Race Course in 2018, when he won the Pimlico Special by 4 1/2 lengths over a sloppy track. Irish War Cry now stands stud at Northview Stallion Station in Warwick, Maryland.
Many of Motion's best runners have shined on the grass.
Better Talk Now and Main Sequence won the Breeders' Cup Turf in 2004 and 2014, respectively.
He won the 2010 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf with Shared Account, and then captured the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf with the horse's offspring, Sharing, a Maryland-bred.
Miss Temple City twice upset the boys, winning the Maker's 46 Mile Stakes and Shadwell Turf Mile Stakes at Keeneland in 2016.
In all, the 57-year-old, a native of Cambridge, England, has won 181 graded stakes races, the museum said.
After graduating from Kent School in Connecticut, Motion started working for trainer Jonathan Sheppard, a fellow native of England and Hall of Famer.
In 1990, he started as an assistant to Bernie P. Bond at Laurel Park, and got his trainer's license three years later after Bond's passing.
Herringswell Stables is named after his childhood home.
Motion is one of four trainers to be named a finalist for the National Racing Museum's Hall of Fame, along with Christophe Clement, Doug O'Neill, and John Shirreffs. Six horses and one jockey were also named finalists.
To be eligible, trainers must be licensed for 25 years and have been active within the last 25 years.
Ballots will be mailed to the Hall of Fame voting panel this week and the results are scheduled to be announced on May 11.
