Gimme a Nother Beverly D. win gives Motion stakes double
Roja scores in Andy Guest
Frank Vespe
August 1, 2026
Trainer Graham Motion went to Colonial Downs Saturday thinking he had some live runners in the track’s big stakes card.
He wasn’t wrong.
Motion’s red-hot distaff trainees Gimme a Nother and Roja won the Grade 2 Beverly D. and Andy Guest Stakes, respectively, to make it a productive day for the barn.
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For Newstead Stables LLC’s Gimme a Nother, the win marked her third consecutive graded stakes triumph and likely set her up to go hunting much bigger game down the road.
“She’s a remarkable filly, and hopefully we get her back to the Breeders’ Cup.” Motion said following the hard-fought win.
The South African-bred Gimme a Nother went 7-for-7 in her home country in 2023 and 2024. Brought to the US with the goal of running in the Breeders’ Cup, she scuffled a bit at first before running a near-miss second in the Canadian Stakes at Woodbine last July and then winning the Grade 2 John C. Mabee at Del Mar in early September.
“It takes a little while to adjust when they come over here, and I thought at the end of last year she was really coming to herself and came up with a little injury,” Motion said. “So we missed the Breeders’ Cup, but hopefully we’re back on track.”
Sent off as the 8-5 favorite in the 1 3/16-mile, $500,000 turf test, Gimme a Nother bided her time in fourth under jockey John Velazquez, a half-dozen or so lengths off the early pace set by Achieve. That runner, with Sonny Leon up, set a modest tempo while running by herself, getting the half-mile in 49.34 seconds and three quarters in 1:13.41.
Achieve, a winner of three straight against maiden and allowance foes entering this contest, kicked on nicely in the lane and maintained a 1 ½-length advantage in mid-stretch.
But Velazquez had his mount outside rivals and rolling, and she prevailed late by a neck over Achieve, with Somethinabouther another neck farther back in third. Running time was 1:54.28.
“I was not sure she was going to get there. Johnny asked me if I was nervous, and yes, I was, very,” Motion said. “I wasn’t sure she was going to get there, but she’s she’s a remarkable filly.”
Gimme a Nother paid $5.20 to win and topped an exacta that returned $22.30 for a one-dollar wager. She’s now 10-for-14 in her career with $811,373 in the bank.
Earlier on the card, Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Madaket Stables LLC’s Roja, last-out winner of the Grade 2 Intercontinental at Saratoga, won for the fourth consecutive and improved to 5-for-6 since switching to turf. She’s a nose away – in last June’s Stormy Blues at Laurel Park – from having a spotless record on the lawn.
With Manny Franco in the irons, Roja went straight to the front and didn’t look back, opening up a clear lead in mid-stretch and holding off the lane run of Somnium by a half-length in 1:02.68 for 5 1/2 furlongs on firm turf.
“We gave her plenty of time to get over her last race because that was a big effort,” Motion said. “She seemed to handle everything really well. I said to Manny she didn’t break as sharp as she usually does but he said she did––it was just the other fillies broke with her. She ended up doing it quite comfortably.”
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