US veteran has chance to shine

Dubai: American trainer Graham Motion has the chance of a lifetime when he saddles nine-year-old Better Talk Now in the $5million Dubai Sheema Classic.

Even though the Maryland-based handler is aware that the odds are stacked against his horse, he is confident that realistic opportunities lie in wait at Nad Al Sheba racecourse on March 29, when the $21million Dubai World Cup meeting takes place.

"When it comes down to it, you can stay here and run in a Grade 2 for a quarter-of-a million [dollars] or you can go over there, which is the chance of a lifetime, and run for $5-million," Motion told the Thoroughbred Times."It's kind of a no-brainer, really.

"It gets a little bit lost in our game that it is a sport, and these are sporting ventures. There's nothing like the Breeders' Cup because it's an international event, and there's nothing like these races in Dubai. They are what makes the game special."

Colourful career

Better Talk Now won the 2004 Breeders' Cup at Lone Star Park and finished second to Red Rocks in the 2006 Breeders' Cup Turf. He was fourth in last year's edition behind English Channel. He has also won five Grade 1 races in a colourful career that has spanned seven years.

In 2005 Motion took his stable star to Asia to compete in the Grade I Japan Cup where he finished unplaced behind Luca Cumani's Alkaased, ridden by Frankie Dettori. There are always concerns about how a horse will respond to travelling long distances but Motion is not too worried about the 14-hour flight that Better Talk Now will have to undertake from Florida to Dubai.

"I find it a little bit hard to get too excited about these things until you're almost ready to go, because so many things can go wrong between now and then," said the trainer.

"But obviously we'll be very excited to go, and it's a tremendous opportunity. To be going with a horse that is doing well is a great opportunity, and he handled the trip to Japan really well so I guess it's comparable in distance and nature. Everything since we won in Texas has been kind of gravy for us; he never had to do another thing after he won the Breeders' Cup," Motion added. "Everything has been a bonus since then. We all realise how lucky we are, and [his owners] do especially."

Better Talk Now was sixth in the Fair Grounds Handicap (Gr 3) in his season debut on February 9, his prep for Dubai.

"He seems to be doing great so we're going to forge on with our plan," Motion said. "You just don't get chances to do things like this, and believe me, we wouldn't be doing it if he wasn't doing well.

"We just feel like the race in New Orleans was just question of getting a race into him. It didn't exactly work out as we hoped, but at the end of the day we got a race into him, and we needed to do that before we went."

Better Talk Now has won 14 of 42 career starts and has amassed $4,054,288 in earnings.