Graham Motion sends No Show Sammy Jo to the Christophe Clement (G3). (Ryan Thompson)
Gulfstream Park Press
HALLANDALE BEACH, FL – He has horses in two of the three headline races on Saturday’s Pegasus World Cup Day program, but another race midway through the card carries extra meaning for trainer Graham Motion.
Motion will send out Newstead Stables’ two-time Grade 3-placed No Show Sammy Jo in the $175,000 Christophe Clement presented by Don Julio as she chases a fourth career stakes win.
It will be the 56th running of the 1 ½-mile grass stakes for fillies and mares 4 and up but the first in honor of the late Clement, who passed away last May at the age of 59 from a rare form of eye cancer.
Contested the La Prevoyante from its inception in 1974, Clement won the race a record six times in three different decades with Sardaniya (1992), Trampoli (1994), Coretta (1998-99), Irish Mission (2014) and Beautiful Lover (2022). Motion ranks second on the list with four wins – Mean Mary (2020), Si Que Es Buena (2019), Film Maker (2005) and New Economy (2002).
“I remember talking to Christophe at this time last year. I had heard some rumors that he had some health issues, and he was very strong about it,” Motion said. “He said yes, but he wasn’t concerned. It’s so sad. He was younger than I am and he was such an amazing trainer and had so much ahead of him. I just feel so sad for the family. It’s so difficult.”
Clement, who saddled his first North American winner in 1991, and Motion, who went out on his own in 1993, had strikingly similar careers. Clement won 2,576 races and more than $184 million in purses including one Classic victory in the 2014 Belmont (G1) with Tonalist.
Motion, 61, has 2,842 lifetime wins and $164 million in purse earnings, and owns one Classic victory with Animal Kingdom in the 2011 Kentucky Derby (G1). In recent years he and Clement have been finalists for induction into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame.
Though their biggest wins came on the dirt, Clement and Motion are best known for their success with turf runners. Clement won the 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) with Pizza Bianca; all four of Motion’s Breeders’ Cup wins have come on the grass including dual champion Main Sequence.
“We were big competitors. We trained for a lot of European owners and trained very similar horses, and I think we had a mutual respect for each other,” Motion said. “But we did compete a lot, more than most people I would compete with on the circuit. It’s a great thing for Gulfstream to do this. I think it’s quite fitting.”
No Show Sammy Jo comes into the Clement off a dominant 5 ¾-length romp in Gulfstream’s 1 3/8-mile Via Borghese Dec. 24. Prior to that start, the 6-year-old mare was runner-up in the Long Island at a similar distance on the Aqueduct turf for the second straight year – beaten less than 1 ½ lengths combined.
“Last time out she kind of showed the form that I expected from her all year. I always thought she was one of my best mares. She had a little bit of a disappointing summer, but I think her last two races have been really good,” Motion said. “The mile and a half is a little bit of an unknown, but I think it’s probably what she wants to do to be honest.”
First or second in nine of her 13 starts, six of them wins, No Show Sammy Jo captured the 1 1/8-mile All Along on Laurel Park’s turf course each of the past two years. Her other wins have come at one and 1 1/16 miles, and other graded attempts have come in the Jenny Wiley (G1) and Gamely (G1) last spring and Glens Falls (G2) last summer.
“I think it took me a while to figure out what she really wanted to do, and I also threw her into the deep end a little bit last year,” said Motion, who will saddle One Stripe and Test Score in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup Turf (G1) and Heredia in the $500,000 TAA Pegasus Filly & Mare Turf (G2).
“I threw her straight into the Grade 1 at Keeneland, which was asking a lot. I think I just got off track with her a little bit,” he added. “She’s a really classy, nice mare to be around. She’s a mare I’ve always thought very highly of.”
Among eight rivals standing in her way is George Messina and Michael Lee’s formidable 4-year-old filly Fionn, trained by Brad Cox. Unraced since mid-November, the $2 million earner has won seven of 10 starts, five of them stakes including last year’s Belmont Oaks Invitational (G1), 1 3/8-mile Jockey Club Oaks (G3), 1 5/16-mile Dueling Grounds Oaks (G3), and Regret (G3). The Belmont Oaks and Regret both came at 1 1/8 miles.
Runner-up by a head in last fall’s Rodeo Drive (G2) at Santa Anita, Speed Shopper exits a win in the 1 ¼-mile Florence over Turfway Park’s synthetic surface. Alluring Angel was seventh in the Via Borghese after beating No Show Sammy Jo in the Long Island. Via Borghese runner-up Gallant Greta; Ramsey Pond, third in the Cellars Shiraz and Tropical Park Oaks on the Gulfstream turf; Florence runner-up Arya Stark; 2025 Dowager (G3) winner Venencia and Weighted Average, riding a two-race win streak, are also entered.
