TRAINER Graham Motion is relishing the challenge of taking on the best of British at Royal Ascot with his filly Sharing.
The three-year-old won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in November and has travelled across the pond for a tilt at the Coronation Stakes.
But Cambridge-born Graham Motion, who trains in Maryland, revealed the coronavirus pandemic very nearly stopped Sharing’s transatlantic trip in it’s tracks.
Motion said: “If you’d asked me a couple of months ago if we’d even attempt to do this, I would have said no way – it just didn’t seem practical.
“In that respect it is much more complicated, but having had the benefit of doing it a few times, I guess it kind of fell into place quite easily and Aron (Wellman of co-owners Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners) and I always said we would only do this if things fell into place, and so far, so good.”
With 14 days’ quarantine required on arrival in Britain, Motion will be watching from home, but his assistant trainer Alice Clapham is ready to welcome Sharing when she jets out on Tuesday.
Motion said: “Alice has been over there for a week or so already. We’re going to Newmarket this time which is new to us as we’ve always gone to Lambourn before, but we just thought this made more sense this year.
“She’s only going to be there for a very short time, so Alice is there and she knows all the ins and outs of it probably better than I do, so she’ll be way better off not having me around I think!”
Sharing warmed up for the Royal meeting with a cosy win in her prep race at Churchill Downs last month. She will be ridden by champion jockey Oisin Murphy on Saturday.
Motion continued: “We, by complete accident, had the ideal prep race exactly a month out from the Coronation, which was moved to the Saturday, so everything has kind of fallen into place.
“I do think that puts us at a little bit of an advantage because you’ve not had the opportunity to have a well-placed prep race (in Britain).
“(Murphy) rode a horse for me this winter in Qatar and I was really impressed with how he rode the horse and his communication, which I think is so important in international racing and domestic racing, especially now when we can’t go to the racecourses.
“I felt very comfortable with having him ride my horse in Qatar and at the time I mentioned there was a possibility we might do this and just to keep it in the back of his mind. It’s kind of fallen into place and he’s on a hot streak, which is great.”
However, Motion is under no illusions about the task ahead of Sharing, having sent the likes of 2011 Kentucky Derby hero Animal Kingdom and Miss Temple City to race at Ascot before.
He said: “I still have so much respect for how difficult it is to do this and I think even when Tepin won the Queen Anne, I don’t think some people on the American side realised quite how difficult it is, having tried to do it myself several times.
“It’s amazing what Wesley Ward has been able to accomplish. It’s not easy and I realise it’s also difficult coming to us, handling the tight turns and the very fast tracks, but perhaps even more so to go over there on the undulating turf courses, when you don’t know what kind of ground you’re going to get.
“We consistently get firm ground in this country and we know what we’re running around.
“I remember the first time I walked around Ascot before we brought Animal Kingdom and I was horrified how tough a track it is. When you walk up the hill on the back side, it’s pretty daunting so I realise what a task it’s going to be for her.
“Obviously we would prefer to have firm ground, but we’re prepared to take that as it comes and take on all challenges.
“We won’t be able to travel, which is bittersweet, but I think this shows just how firm a commitment it is for us to do this. We’re not doing it because we want to go to the parties, we’re doing it for the challenge for Sharing.”
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