BETTER TALK NOW2.qxd:Jerkins feature.qxd
4/10/08
11:43
Page 2
BETTER TALK NOW
He may be nine years old but late-running gelding
MR. DEPENDABLE BETTER TALK NOW is...
I
T’S HARD to imagine that Better Talk Now, Graham Motion’s remarkable, late-running nine-yearold gelding, would ever cost his trainer a good night’s sleep. After all, Better Talk Now’s victory in the 2004 Breeders’ Cup Turf gave Motion a national presence, one which has only grown as Better Talk Now continues to perform at the highest level of racing with 14 victories in 47 career starts and earnings of more than $4.2 million. Yet there was one race that still haunts Motion. Back on December 28th, 2002, with jockey Ramon Dominguez aboard for the first time, Better Talk Now was uncontrollably rank, not what you would expect from a horse who always comes from behind. He was running in the $100,000 Woodchopper Handicap at the Fair Grounds. Coming off two consecutive allowance victories, Better Talk Now went off the 6-5 favorite in a field of 11. “The time Ramon first got up on him, he gave him a hard time,” Motion said. “Basically, he ran off with Ramon in the post parade.” It got worse.
By Bill Heller
“In the race, he just got very strong and unmanageable, and went to the front,” Motion said. Unfortunately for Motion and Dominguez, that move came midway through the mile-and-a-sixteenth turf stakes as Better Talk Now went from sixth to battle head-to-head with the leader. He poked a head in front way too early, and tired to finish eighth by six lengths. Motion had trouble getting that performance out of his mind. “My worst nightmare was that he’d do it again in a race,” Motion said. “I had flashbacks. Absolutely. I didn’t know the horse he would become.” Motion couldn’t have dreamed how good his horse would become. Better Talk Now’s last 26 starts have been in graded stakes. Twenty-four of those stakes were Grade 1 or Grade 2. If he’s slowing down at the age of nine, he certainly didn’t show it this summer at Saratoga Race Course when he overcame a wide trip to finish second in the Grade 1 Sword Dancer. In his next start just three weeks later over a yielding course in the $750,000 Grade 1 Northern Dancer
Stakes at Woodbine, September 7th, he clipped heels in traffic and finished seventh under Dominguez, who has ridden Better Talk Now in his last 18 starts. “Ramon rarely makes excuses, but he was adamant about this,” Motion said September 9th. “He said he was cruising and one of the other horses came over and he clipped heels. Ramon says it cost him everything.” Motion said that Better Talk Now came out of the race with a few minor scrapes and otherwise was fine. Motion has two options in mind for Better Talk Now’s final race this year: the $2 million Canadian International at Woodbine, October 4th, or the $3 million Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita three weeks later. “A lot of it is going to depend on how he’s doing,” Motion said. “Our biggest concern is how he feels before we make any decisions.” That has always been Motion’s concern, and Better Talk Now’s continued success is a testimony to the talent and patience of his 43-year-old trainer who ranked 15th nationally in earnings through midSeptember.
ISSUE 10 TRAINERMAGAZINE.com 61