SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Trainer Graham Motion said Test Score exited his victory in Friday’s Grade 1 Belmont Derby in good order and that the $3.5 million Nashville Derby, the richest race for 3-year-olds in North America aside from the Kentucky Derby, will be his next major goal at Kentucky Downs on Aug. 30.
Test Score appeared to be spinning his wheels a bit when not making any progress after initially being called upon by jockey Manny Franco turning into the stretch of the 1 1/8-mile Belmont Derby. Test Score gave Motion some anxious moments before finally settling into his best stride and readily running by the leaders en route to a convincing 1 1/4-length victory over World Beater to register his first Grade 1 victory.
Test Score, who was stretching out to 1 1/8 miles for the first time, had finished second behind Zulu Kingdom in his previous start two months earlier in the Grade 1 American Derby at Churchill Downs.
“He tends to do that, although when watching the race live, it seemed a little worse than when watching the replay a few hours later,” Motion admitted. “It does take him a little while to get going, to get in gear. He tends to want to lean on horses a little bit when around them. But once in the clear, he ran on and won, I thought, pretty comfortably. And I think the extra sixteenth of a mile really helped him.”
Motion, who has now won back-to-back renewals of the Belmont Derby, said there is a possibility Test Score could ship back here from his base at Fair Hill for the $750,000 Saratoga Derby on Aug. 2.
“We’ll see how things go, we could bring him back here once more this summer for the next one, although it’s hard to pass up the race at Kentucky Downs for that kind of money. We have to take our best shot at it.”
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