“He ran a huge race [in the Lewis],” trainer John Salzman Jr. said. “We did try a little something different. Ever since he got hit in the eye at Timonium, we were scared to take a little hold of him because we know he doesn’t like the dirt in his face. This time we took a little hold of him and just laid outside of horses and he made a run and luckily had something left.

“[Beast Or Famine] came by on the outside. He was actually three or four paths off the rail away from us and I was scared he wasn’t going to pick him up, but as soon as he saw him he dug back in and got it done,” he added. “He’s a very nice horse, and he does give you his best effort.”

Local Motive won at first asking July 24 at Pimlico and followed that up with a win in the Hickory Tree Stakes on the turf at Colonial Downs Aug. 2, though Salzman has said he thought it was less that his charge took to the turf than the company he kept that put him in the winner’s circle that day.

Since, he was the beaten favorite when pulled up after getting hit in the eye with a clump of dirt in the Timonium Juvenile and then finished fifth in the Smoke Glacken at Monmouth Park prior to the Maryland Million.

Local Motive drew outside Post 8 under J.D. Acosta.