Warming. (Benoit Photo)
Trainer Graham Motion and jockey Juan Hernandez double on weekend stakes
Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif.—A day after teaming to win the GII Twilight Derbv with Test Score at Santa Anita, trainer Graham Motion and jockey Juan Hernandez joined forces again on Sunday to win the Grade III Autumn Miss Stakes with Warming.
Sent off at 5-1, Warming settled near the rear of the field and then shot through horses at the top of the stretch to win comfortably by 1 ½ lengths. A Thousand Miles, the longest shot on the board at 95-1, finished a gallant second under Diego Herrera after setting fractions of 22.78, 46.63 and 1:11.48 for six furlongs. It was another 1 ¼ lengths back to Precise Timing (71-1) in third followed by Wink and a Grin (46-1). The trio of high-priced horses in the minor placings helped trigger a $4,709.01 payout in the $1 superfecta.
The Autumn Miss was the first stakes win for Warming, a daughter of Global Campaign owned by Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners. She won in a time of 1:34.44.
“She broke a step slow.,” Hernandez said. “The plan was to stay close to the pace, but after the gate opened plans change. I just went to the inside a little bit to save ground. They put up a good pace so that helped me a lot. I was just kind of waiting to make my move. Around the quarter pole, the horse in front of me dropped out and I saw the opportunity to shoot in between them. I asked my filly to go in through that hole and she did it. She just kept accelerating to the wire.”
Warming was purchased for $100,000 at last year’s OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training. She is now 7: 3-0-1 with $191,100 in earnings. In three previous stakes tries, Warming finished fifth in the both the GI Belmont Oaks and GII Lake Placid this summer at Saratoga, and most recently was third by three-quarters of a length in the GIII John C. Harris sprinting about 6 ½ furlongs on the hillside turf course at Santa Anita on Sept. 27.
Warming paid $12.40, $6.20 and $4.60. A Thousand Miles, trained by Vann Belvoir, returned $92.80 and $30.00. Precise Timing, ridden by Antonio Fresu for trainer John Sadler, paid $27.
