Graham Motion Discusses Divine Huntress Prior to Rachel Alexandra
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Graham Motion Shed’s Light
Rachel Alexandra Wildcard Divine Huntress
New Orleans, LA (February 18, 2022)–Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Long Valley Stables’ Divine Huntress will make her fourth start in Saturday’s $300,000 Rachel Alexandra (G2) presented by Fasig-Tipton, going 1 1/16 mile for 3-year-old fillies. Bred in Maryland by Dr. & Mrs. Thomas Bowman, Ricky L. Buckley & Joshua Dreiband, Graham Motions trains this filly by Divining Rod and out of Thrill Seeker (post five, Jose Ortiz, 6-1 ML). Divine Huntress won her last two starts, including the first go of her 3-year-old season, a 12 ¾ length victory over first-level allowance optional claiming company at Parx.
“Obviously this will be a huge step up for her,” Graham Motion said. “She’s doing great. We moved her to Tampa to get her out of the weather at Fair Hill [Training Center]. The idea was to get her into a better climate and break up the ship to New Orleans.”
“She’s very push-button,” Motion said. “Jose [Ortiz] breezed her on Saturday at Tampa [Bay Downs]. So he got to know her a little bit. I’m excited Jose wanted to ride her. He was pleased with the work.”
“She’s very classy, very easy, very kind to be around–just very straight forward,” Motion said. “That makes doing all this easier. But listen, this is a tough spot. I mean she’s going to have to step up. I feel like with these 3-year-olds, boys or girls, it’s the time to find out. You kind of have to find out this time of year, don’t you, it’s now or never.”
“My assistant Jane Buchanan and I made mention of [purchasing Divine Huntress] to Aron [Wellman, of Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners],” Motion said. “He always has a knack for finding horses and they’re kind of off the grid, if you like, and it seemed like an interesting play. It just so happened that Rick [Buckley] was interested in staying in for a piece of her so that’s how we got here.”
“The front wraps are just something Rick [Buckley] had mentioned to us, that he had sometimes breezed her in front wraps so we just kept them on, too,” Motion said. “I’m not even sure I’ll do it on Saturday. She just has a tendency to hit herself a little bit.”
The Rachel Alexandra drew a field of 11 vying for Kentucky Oaks (G1) points–50-20-10-5 to the top four finishers. Race 12, post time is scheduled for 5:27 pm CT.
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