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Animal Kingdom trainer hopes for 2nd Team Valor Derby win
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Fitch senior Alexa Diana, 17, with the help of her father, Pat Diana, has baked and decorated nearly 100 Kentucky Derby-themed cake pops that are being taken to Churchill Downs for Saturday’s race. Among the fans of Alexa’s Lil Baby Cakes business is the family of Youngstown businessman Bruce Zoldan. Zoldan is part-owner of the thoroughbred Went the Day Well, which is one of the 21 horses in this year’s race.
McClatchy Newspapers
LOUISVILLE, Ky.
Graham Motion shrugs his shoulders when asked, then offers, as usual, a dirt-honest appraisal of his horse, Went the Day Well.
“He’s a good horse, deserves to be here,” the trainer of last year’s Kentucky Derby winner, Animal Kingdom, said about his entrant in the 138th running of the Triple Crown’s first leg. “We’ll find out if he’s good enough to win it.”
It takes a few seconds, but Motion then realizes it: he didn’t feel much differently about Animal Kingdom, who was 20-1, prior to last year’s race. Animal Kingdom surprised even Motion with his late speed and competitiveness, and Went the Day Well — along with about 12 other horses — could blossom the same way Saturday. Went the Day Well is partially owned by Youngstown businessman Bruce Zoldan.
Motion, who lives and trains in Fair Hill, is clearly enjoying his return to Churchill Downs. He tweeted a picture of the track upon his arrival Wednesday morning, and has been sought out by reporters and fans.
What has changed most for him is just how many people stop to ask him what has changed. But he admits that winning the Derby seems less improbable but no less daunting now, equating it to a climber who has surmounted Mount Everest. He knows he can do it. And he knows exactly how hard it will be to do again.
“It doesn’t seem quite so lofty,” he said. “I think I was quoted last year as saying I didn’t even think it was reasonable to make it a goal. ... But now we’ve done it. Certainly in that respect it makes it a little more realistic, if you like. But I also realize that the challenge of doing it again, so many things have to go right.”
Went the Day Well followed a similar path to Animal Kingdom, breaking his maiden just a few weeks before winning the Turfway Spiral and proving to Motion and the ownership group, Team Valor International, that he was worthy of a Derby trip. His development was slowed earlier this year when, upon being shipped to Florida after being purchased in Europe, he was quarantined for two weeks. That put Motion’s training behind, and he’s taking the unusual step of having Went the Day Well race with blinkers on for the first time Saturday.
“He’s still a little immature,” he said. “He’s been so green in his last couple of races. It goes against what I would normally do, to put blinkers on a horse for the first time in the biggest race of his life. I really believe we’re going to do it down the road. It’d be a shame — we’d kick ourselves — if we hadn’t done it Saturday.”
John Velazquez will have the ride, as he did with Animal Kingdom, and the trio of jockey, trainer and ownership group is trying to become the first to win the Derby in consecutive years since 1972-73.