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Motivator

Coral-Eclipse Stakes, Sandown

Hellllo

All Time Great Lays

Motivator had been the most impressive Derby winner for some time. The favourite, the Dante winner, he had been the one the punters had wanted at Epsom, and he had sluiced in by five lengths. Consequently, there was always a chance that he would be over-hyped the next time he ran, wherever that may have been.

His first run after his Derby romp was in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes at Sandown a month after Epsom. The clash between Motivator and Shamardal was eagerly anticipated: the Epsom Derby winner against the winner of the French Guineas and French Derby on its inaugural running over the new distance of 10 and a half furlongs, who had gone on to win the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot at York. Twelve furlong stamina versus eight and 10 furlong speed over the intermediate distance. Regrettably, Shamardal was a late withdrawal from the Eclipse. The match was off, but the game was most certainly on.

It had been 16 years since the Derby winner had last won the Eclipse but, in the absence of Shamardal, the 2005 renewal didn’t look like the strongest renewal ever, and it was understandable that Motivator was popular. Pick of the older horses was Starcraft, the Antipodean who had finished third in the Queen Anne Stakes on his first run since crossing the equator, while Motivator’s main opponent from his own generation was Oratorio, who had finished well back in the Derby, but had run well to finish third behind Shamardal in the St James’s Palace Stakes over a mile.

Odds of 2/5 about Motivator were plenty short enough given the poor recent record of Derby winners in the Eclipse and the fact that it was unlikely that a step back down in trip was going to be in favour of a colt who had seen out the Derby distance so well.

The Derby winner travelled keenly through the early part of the race, with Johnny Murtagh eventually managing to anchor him in behind Hazyview after a couple of furlongs. He travelled well through the race and when Murtagh moved him out to deliver his challenge at the two-furlong pole, favourite backers had to have been on good terms with themselves. But when Murtagh sat down and asked the son of Montjeu to go on and win his race, the response was not immediate, and it certainly wasn’t as impressive as it had been at Epsom.

All the while, Kieren Fallon had been nursing and cajoling Oratorio into the bridle. He had been encouraging him around in a circle behind the stalls before the race, and now he encouraged him into the race behind Motivator. Inside the final furlong, the distress signals began to become apparent from Murtagh as Fallon closed in. Suddenly, the writing was on the wall. Oratorio caught Motivator with about 50 yards to run, and moved on to beat him by a half a length.

Motivator never won again. He got beaten by Oratorio again in the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown, and he rounded off the season, and his career, by finishing a creditable fifth behind Hurricane Run in the Arc de Triomphe.

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