by Mike Curry

Five years ago at Lone Star Park, Fair Hill, Maryland-based trainer Graham Motion was quite pleased during his Breeders' Cup debut after two of his three scheduled starters turned in strong performances.

Dance Away Capote finished a creditable fifth in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and Film Maker, Motion's first Grade 1 winner, closed gallantly to take second behind eventual champion Ouija Board (GB) in the VO5 Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1).

Motion was replaying Film Maker's race in his mind and considering how close he had come to winning a Breeders' Cup race while he and his crew were getting their final starter, Better Talk Now, ready for the John Deere Breeders' Cup Turf (G1).

"It was an odd day. I'd never set foot in Texas, much less run a horse in the Breeders' Cup," Motion recalled. "Film Maker was second and she had run so well and come so close that I was almost disappointed.

"We didn't have great expectations by the time Better Talk Now was scheduled to run. We were pretty pleased with the rest of the day and just very relaxed in the paddock before Better Talk Now's race, and we looked up at the odds board and he was 28- or 29-to-1 and the longest shot in the field.”

The Talkin Man gelding was a somewhat puzzling five-year-old who had a habit of lugging in through the stretch and needed some pace to target. But Motion appeared to have solved the Better Talk Now riddle with a full-cup blinker covering his left eye and the deft touch of jockey Ramon Dominguez, who guided him to a win in the Sword Dancer Invitational Stakes (G1) in August 2004 at Saratoga Race Course. But in the days leading up to the 2004 Breeders' Cup, Motion was having second thoughts about entering Better Talk Now in the Turf.

"We had real soul searching about running him that day. I honestly think I wouldn't have done it if I didn't have Film Maker going," Motion said. "It sounds silly, but it made sense for him to kind of tag along since we were already sending her out to Lone Star. He had a real poor workout at Fair Hill after they had just replaced the woodchips on the training track. We thought maybe it was just that he didn't like the track, but in the end we decided we had nothing to lose."

Turns out, Motion had everything to gain that Saturday at Lone Star Park. Pacesetter Star Over the Bay helped set up Better Talk Now's powerful closing kick, Dominguez gave him a patient ride, and the idiosyncratic black gelding steamrolled to a shocking 27.90-to-1 upset victory.

Motion's head was spinning as he made his way down to the track to celebrate. If only it was that easy. Better Talk Now drifted in a bit after he took charge in the stretch, and he had to withstand a stewards’ inquiry and an objection.

"I think we were all pretty surprised and probably the last ones to know there was even an inquiry," Motion said. "It seemed at the time like it was the longest inquiry in the history of racing."

After a lengthy delay, the claim of foul was disallowed and Better Talk Now had rewarded Motion and the Bushwood Stables partnership of Brent Johnson, Karl Barth, and Chris Dwyer with a life-changing victory.

“Being part of this horse’s racing career was one of the most exciting things we and our families have ever enjoyed," Johnson said. "His talents took us with him around the country and the world and we will never forget those experiences or the people who shared them with us."

Though Better Talk Now's win capped a banner day for Motion, Lone Star was more a beginning than an end for the trainer. Better Talk Now would compete in each of the next four Breeders' Cups, finishing second in the 2006 Turf and fourth in the '07 edition. Film Maker finished third in the 2005 Filly and Mare Turf and second to Ouija Board in '06. Together they gave Motion 15 graded stakes wins and led to many new opportunities, especially with European owners.

"I was around Flatterer when he won the Eclipse Award a few years in a row [1983-‘86 as champion steeplechaser] for Jonathan Sheppard and I walked him every day. We ran him in France and after the race he almost collapsed from exhaustion; he was trying so hard," Motion said. "Better Talk Now and Film Maker were like that. They were tremendous triers and tough, hard-knocking, workmanlike horses who gave you everything they had."

Film Maker retired after the 2006 Filly and Mare Turf, and Better Talk Now was retired in September with a suspensory injury.

This will be the first time in six years that Better Talk Now will not take part in the Breeders' Cup. But five years after the black gelding's shocking victory helped put him on the map, Motion will be back at the Breeders' Cup with three contenders--Smart Seattle in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, Zilva in the Grey Goose Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), and Bullsbay in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1). Motion, 45, knows he would not be where he is today without Better Talk Now.

"He's the horse of a lifetime. I hope I'll have another horse of his ability, but I know I'll never have another horse like him," said Motion, who this summer brought his first career stakes winner, 21-year-old Gala Spinaway, back to a life of leisure at Fair Hill.

"I'm an emotional person and it's an emotional attachment that you're always told to avoid as a trainer. But I'm a horse person and a horse lover. In the evening, I go back to the barn to be with the animals. At the end of the day, that's the pleasure for me."

Mike Curry is a Thoroughbred Times TODAY editor