Motion: training dual champion Main Sequence is ‘pretty special’

Main Sequence remained undefeated in 2014 under Motion’s tutelage (NYRA/Adam Mooshian/Adam Coglianese Photography)

When four-time Grade 1 winner and Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1)
hero Main Sequence (Aldebaran) was honored with two Eclipse Awards Saturday evening at
Gulfstream Park, it brought trainer Graham Motion full circle.

Main Sequence earned the
Eclipse Award for champion turf horse as well as for champion older horse after
concluding a perfect season that included wins in the United Nations (G1), Sword
Dancer Invitational (G1) and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1) with a Breeders’ Cup title.
The six-year-old gelding, undefeated in North America under the care of Motion, received 243 of
265 possible first-place votes for male turf horse and an additional 127 votes
for top older horse.

“I think as a trainer, you want to train a champion,”
Motion acknowledged. “It’s really just so neat to be a part of that. To have it
in the record books that you’ve trained a champion, for me it’s really
fulfilling. To be top older horse and turf horse, it’s just so exciting.”

Motion was especially honored to train a champion for
breeders/owners Flaxman Holdings Ltd., a group whose horses Graham can recall
following as a child in Europe.

Main Sequence gave Flaxman Holdings its fourth
Eclipse Award trophy, and, fittingly, their newest champion is a son of one of
their previous honorees. Aldebaran won the Eclipse Award for champion sprinter
in 2003.

“It’s so exciting to be a part of the Niarchos of the
Flaxman Group, which is such a storied stable,” Graham said. “I grew up watching
their horses run as a kid in Europe, so I never would have dreamt that I would
have trained a champion for them. That’s pretty special.”