Graham Motion looking forward to Delaware season
Trainer is all-time leading stakes winner at DelPark
Press Release
April 28, 2026
While the national training accomplishments of Graham Motion are well documented, his success in Delaware Park stakes for the last three decades is just as extraordinary.
When the 89th season of live racing opens on May 13, Motion will once again have the opportunity to add to that legacy early in the meet on June 13, when six stakes worth $1.3 million will be featured, highlighted by the Delaware Derby, Grade 3 Delaware Oaks and Grade 3 Robert G. Memorial.
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Since capturing his first Delaware Park stake with Power Play in the 1997 Delaware Handicap, Motion has amassed a record 55 stakes victories at the Stanton-oval. That is six more than fellow Delaware Park stalwart Tim Ritchey, and 15 more than one of Motion’s mentors, the late Hall of Famer Jonathan Sheppard. The rest of the field is far back.
“To be mentioned in a category with one of my mentors and these other great trainers is certainly very rewarding for me,” trainer H. Graham Motion said. “I am pleasantly surprised that I have won more stakes at the track than Jonathan (Sheppard). It is a little unbelievable because he was almost unbeatable here, especially at the higher levels for so long, but this is kind of where I grew up as a trainer. When I first got into training and working for him, it was kind of my bread and butter to run on down to Delaware to catch the races in the afternoon where we would run a lot of horses.”
Motion has won nearly every major stake in track history and his achievements rival, if not surpass, most of the all-time greats in the sport who have raced at Delaware Park including Stephens, Mott and Pletcher to name a few.
His dominance in the Robert G. Memorial is particularly striking: Motion has captured ten of the 28 renewals of the race, and when a local prep was offered, he won that race five times, including a stretch of four consecutive victories.
In 2025, Motion won three stakes from four starters, including the Delaware Oaks, tying Hall of Famer Oscar White for most career victories in the race. Those Oaks triumphs span a quarter century – Sincerely (2000), Fortune Pearl (2014) and Fondly (2025).
Motion attributes his long-term success at Delaware Park to two primary factors: the strength of his team and the proximity to his headquarters at Fair Hill Training Center, located nine miles away in Elkton, Maryland.
“It works,” Motion said, who has won at least one Delaware Park stake in 26 of the past 29 seasons. “It works very well with Fair Hill. It is such a good arrangement to be able to have horses at Fair Hill and Delaware. It is an easy switch for us, and it gives us another dimension to be able to run at Delaware. We have horses that fit and Delaware has opportunities. Plus, it has a wonderful environment and facility to train and race, so we have found the two complement each other very effectively which is why we also keep a division at the track.”
As plans take shape for Delaware Derby Day 2026, Motion already has several races on his radar.
“I definitely have horses in my mind for the Robert Dick,” he said. “That race stands out for us based on the type of horses we typically have and our success over the years. As for the other stakes, they’re always in the back of our minds. They are important local races, and if we have a horse that fits, we want to be represented.”
Motion takes pride in being a standard bearer of a tradition established by the likes of Cocks, Mulholland, Clark, Whiteley and Delp of formidable local trainers who welcome outside competition from around the country but will also make sure every victory will be met with a challenge.
“It is always nice when you think you have the kind of horses where people shipping to run are going to be considering they may have to run against us,” he said. “When we do win a race, especially a stake and when it is a race like the DelCap, Oaks, Derby or Robert Dick, we are extremely proud. It is never easy to win races. There are many exceptional trainers in this area and when you combine them with some strong out of town competition, when we do win a race, any race, it is very gratifying and it is a little sweeter when it happens at home.”
Perhaps a race that shaped and influenced his career significantly was his first Delaware Park stake victory when he saddled 27-to-1 longshot winner Power Play in the Delaware Handicap in 1997.
“Honestly, when I think about it one of my best memories, and one of our first really big wins on the national stage, was when Power Play won the Delaware Handicap,” he said. “I remember that day like it was yesterday. I was with [owner] Dr. Leonard, who was one of our original owners, sitting up in the grandstand watching the horses go down the back stretch thinking ‘oh geez what have I done here.’ We were a big price; we had one horse beaten and we were very far back. I felt hopeless. I just remember thinking at one point down the backstretch that I had made a huge mistake and then suddenly, she came with that big run. That moment really made an impact and shaped the way I have viewed many decisions in my career. It was very rewarding on so many levels. First, to win a big race like that in my own backyard and second, to be able to share that victory with so many great people including Dr. Leonard and the jockey Larry Reynolds. It is neat now that I think about it because Larry is still riding at Charles Town and I think his son is too.”
Just as Sheppard was instrumental at the beginning of Motion’s career, so, too, Motion has been with many including another local legend, Hall of Fame jockey Ramon Dominguez, who has the most career riding victories in track history. The pair also both share the milestone of winning their first Breeders’ Cup race together when Better Talk Now won the BC Turf at Lone Star Park in 2004.
“I’ve known Graham since 1998 when I first came to Delaware Park,” Ramon Dominguez said. “He has remained the same soft-spoken, detail-oriented, horse comes first, respectful individual. He was already established as a trainer with top horses in his barn as I was working hard to get recognition. From day one, he gave me a chance to ride horses whose accomplishments were at a much higher level than my career was at the time and that opportunity catapulted my career.”
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