Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Motion seeks seventh Robert G. Dick Memorial victory

Stanton, Del., July 5, 2011 - Since the Grade III Robert G. Dick Memorial was inaugurated in 1997, Kentucky Derby winning trainer H. Graham Motion has won six. The 47-year-old native of Cambridge, England, will be sending both Zamin Meahjohn’s Media Madness and Nancy Mazzoni’s She Be Classy into the mile-and-three-eighths $200,000 grass affair for fillies and mares.

“With these fillies, I have always wanted to try them at longer distances,” said Motion, who won the Kentucky Derby this year with Animal Kingdom. “She Be Classy acts like she wants to go that far, and Media Madness kind of has the pedigree to go that far, so it is something I have had in the back of my mind for some time. We seem to have had plenty of luck in this race. It is a great race, and we are proud to have done as well as we have in the race.”


In her most recent, She Be Classy posted a 3½-length score in the $75,000 John Rooney Memorial Stakes, originally scheduled for the turf but transferred to the main track at Delaware Park on June 18. Incidentally, She Be Classy gave Motion his fifth John Rooney victory in the eight renewals of the race. Previously, the 4-year-old daughter of Toccet posted a neck victory in mile-and-a-sixteenth turf allowance at Pimlico on May 1. The Kentucky-bred has a career record of five wins, two seconds and three thirds from 20 starts, with earnings of $134,258.

In her last start, Media Madness notched a ¾-length victory in a Churchill Downs turf allowance on May 28. Previously, the 4-year-old daughter of Empire Maker finished second in a one-mile turf allowance at Keeneland on April 8. The Kentucky-bred has a career record of two wins, two seconds and a third from five starts with earnings of $67,522.

Motion has won more than 22 stakes at Delaware Park in his career, including the 1997 Delaware Handicap with Power Play and the 2000 Delaware Oaks with Sincerely. He won his first Robert G. Dick with Bursting Forth in 1999. He followed by winning the race with New Economy in 2002, Alternate in 2003 and 2004, Rosinka in 2007 and Caprice in 2009.

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