By Alan Carasso
When trainer Graham Motion ships horses to California in the fall, he typically means business. Down the years, he has won the Matriarch, the Hollywood Turf Cup and the Red Carpet H. (ex Beverly Hills H.), and the successful conditioner will send out a pair of runners for Saturday's GIII Jimmy Durante S., the race formerly contested as the Miesque S.
Journey Home (War Front), a rare purchase at public auction by Sam-Son Farm, took plenty of pari-mutuel action for her Nov. 4 bow at Laurel Park, and she turned in a professional debut, sitting a mid-field trip and then bridging a 4 1/2-length deficit in the final furlong to prevail by a neck. Motion reaches out to Drayden Van Dyke, who has ridden 17% winners for the barn this season.
Happy Mesa (Sky Mesa) won the Selima S. for trainer Hamilton Smith before switching to the Motion barn, for whom she was runner-up in the Oct. 10 Surfer Girl S. and ninth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.
The well-pedigreed Defiant Honor (Speightstown) was favored for her Sept. 11 debut over the Belmont turf course and was trapped out for most of trip after a slow start, and although she finished sixth, she finished full or fun and was beaten only 1 1/2 lengths. More forwardly placed for her second go over yielding Belmont turf Oct. 30 despite a wide draw, she responded when asked 2 1/2 furlongs out and may not have loved the underfoot conditions, but raced away to graduate by two lengths. Defiant Honor is the full-sister to Recepta, who tragically succumbed to laminitis earlier this week.
LNJ Foxwoods' With Honors (War Front) will try to remain perfect in three turf tries here. A half-length winner on her course-and-distance debut July 29, the bay overcame gate 12 to win the Juvenile Fillies Turf S. Sept. 5. Second in the GI Chandelier S. on the main Oct. 1, she returns to what is likely her preferred surface off a ninth in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Nov. 5.
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