Old Chapel Looks to Continue Forward 'Motion'

Old Chapel Farm owner and operator Andrew Motion came to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale as a consignor for the first time last year with just one Ghostzapper filly to sell, but he made it count, turning that $65,000 weanling into a $285,000 yearling. The English native hopes to see similar results at this year's Saratoga Sale with another one-horse consignment–a filly from the first crop of MGISW Verrazano.

“It's a little bit more of an unknown quantity being she's by a freshman sire,” Motion said of Hip 3. “Going in with a Ghostzapper last year, I was going in with a proven sire who was quite hot at the time. This filly is a lovely, lovely filly and we happen to be the only Verrazano filly in the sale. Maybe that will stand me in good stead. His foals were very well received, so I don't see why his yearlings wouldn't be. It seems they were in July. They are all very athletic looking and walk very well. I am very excited about her as an individual.”

Bred by Kendall Hansen and M.D. Racing, Hip 3 is out of the unraced mare Magic Show (Notebook), who has produced four winners from four to race, including GISP You Know I Know (Simon Pure), who earned over $500,000 on the racetrack. Motion picked up the filly for $70,000 as a weanling at last year's Keeneland November sale.

“I look at the individual first and then I look to see if it has enough pedigree for me to justify taking a chance on it,” the 51-year-old said. “I want them to come out and walk for me like they own the place and this Verrazano filly did that last November. She just walked right out there like she was the bees knees with this big walk and kind eye on her. So that really struck me.”

Motion continued, “I looked at all the fillies, but the Verrazanos were really striking my eye. It is interesting in a freshman sire group, it doesn't take long to realize which stallions are totally stamping their foals with the same walk, attitude and head carriage. I quickly could tell the Verrazanos were looking like a nice group. I firmly believe in the horse. He was a phenomenal horse himself. We vetted several, but got outbid. For whatever reason, maybe because she was the first horse through the ring in Book 2, I got lucky and got this one within my budget.”

The Verrazano filly is the only yearling Motion is bringing to Saratoga, but he has three other fillies back home in his barn in Upperville, Virginia. The remaining three yearlings, who are by Into Mischief, Orb and More Than Ready, will be sold at Keeneland September.

“I've got four really nice fillies and there is probably no reason why any of them couldn't have gone [to Saratoga], but I just felt that at this stage this filly was further along than the others,” Motion explained. “She is coming right at the right time. I think she looks great. She's still got that lovely walk that I bought her with.”

Last year Motion took the fillies he did not feel were ready for Saratoga to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearling Sale and saw good returns. A Discreetly Mine filly he purchased for $60,000 as a KEENOV weanling summoned $175,000 in Timonium and his Super Saver filly blossomed from a $60,000 weanling to a $90,000 yearling.

This year, however, Motion felt his group deserved a shot on the bigger stage in Lexington in September.

“I think I am getting to the level now on pedigree and individuals that they need to go to September, where there is a bigger pool of buyers,” he said. “I love the Maryland sale, but doing it myself, there is no point in me spreading over three sales in three months. The group as a whole felt like they belonged very well in Kentucky. Last year's group did not have the sire power these three fillies have.”

Motion added, “To be honest, the More Than Ready filly that I have is a tall, leggy More Than Ready and there are going to be Europeans that show up in September and there won't be any Europeans at Timonium. You want the Europeans to see her because obviously they've done well with the More Than Readys just like the Americans have.”

Motion may have only joined the pinhooking game five years ago, but he has been in the Thoroughbred business his whole life. His mother was an amateur jockey and assistant trainer and his father was an international bloodstock agent.

While his older brother Graham Motion was drawn to the training side of the industry, Andrew Motion was always enamored by the sales aspect.

“I left high school telling dad I was going to be Sheikh Mohammed's farm manager by the time I was 30,” Motion said with a laugh. “That is all I wanted to. I never even thought about going to college. I just wanted to get straight into the horse business. I went to Kentucky and I worked for Dr. Michael Osborne at North Ridge Farm. Dr. Osborne was a wonderful mentor to me and he encouraged me to go to the Irish National Stud. So, I did. I had a wonderful experience and met a ton of great people. It was a nice sort of launching pad for me to travel the world in the Thoroughbred business. I worked at Dalham Hall for a season, sort of as a working student at Sheikh Mohammed's farm in Newmarket, and spent a few years at New Zealand breeding farms. ”

After traveling the world, Motion rejoined his parents in Virginia and decided to put down roots. He started a family and took a job at Lazy Lane Farm, where he stayed for 10 years, working the last five as Thoroughbred manager. Motion left Lazy Lane in 2000 and in 2003, he bought Old Chapel Farm with his wife Patty. She passed away from cancer a short time later, forcing Motion to put his Thoroughbred sales dreams on hold.

“I very much intended to set up my own operation when I left Lazy Lane,” he said. “Sadly, life circumstances got in the way. My girls' mom, my wife, became ill with cancer and we lost her. So, I had to put my plans on hold because I had two little girls to care for. I stayed in touch with the horse business, but I stepped away for a little while. I wasn't in a position to start my own business and raise two little girls. So, I sold real estate for a while. I remarried when my girls were around college age. My current wife, Janie, encouraged me to do what I had planned on doing all along.”

Motion's wife and daughters, Mary and Lillibet, sent him off to Keeneland January with a budget of $10,000. He bought two fillies to resell in Timonium, where he turned that $10,000 into $48,000.

“My goal is to have a small group of really quality fillies,” Motion said. “I'm not necessarily in the situation where I can do colts. You need a different set up. I'm by myself and colts require a little more labor. Fillies are easier because you can turn them out together. I also like doing fillies because a filly with a good pedigree will always have good residual. I feel like even if I end up keeping a filly and racing her, if she has some pedigree, maybe that is the start of my broodmare band some day. I am just really enjoying picking out a small herd of good-looking athletic fillies that I can afford and trying to bring them along, raise them right and resell them as yearlings.”

Motion has a unique and hands-on approach when it comes to raising his yearlings.

“I start my young horses the way you would start any young horse to be ridden,” Motion explained. “I do an awful lot of long lining with them. We will walk through the fields or use the all-weather footing ring at the farm. We do some jogging and changing directions. We may trot some poles here and there. It keeps them interested, they don't get bored and it builds up their muscles naturally doing it. It makes it easier for the next person that has them.”

He added, “I will change it up and take them out with the pony. We are lucky we are in beautiful hunt country, so all the neighbors are very welcoming and there are tons of hay fields around, so we go out and ride around the hay fields. The other morning we had deer, turkey and a fox all on one ride. It is great for their brain and I am just in a really lucky position that I can do that.”

As someone with deep roots, vast knowledge and a lifetime of experience in all aspects of the Thoroughbred industry, Motion could have gone any way in his career with horses, but he felt pinhooking was the best fit.

“I think for somebody small like me without very deep pockets, it was the best way to start my own business,” Motion said. “We started with $10,000. You can't go out and buy a mare and breed to a $15,000 stud fee and try to get as nice of a sales yearling on that kind of budget. I think that having spent so much time around my dad as a young fellow in the horse world, his mentorship and his education, and all those that I've worked with since, have given me a little bit of an eye for who is an athlete and who's not. I thought that was my best asset so I might as well try and use that.”

The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select Sale runs next Monday, Aug. 7 and Tuesday, August 8 with sessions beginning at 6:30p.m.