Motion: training dual champion Main Sequence is 'pretty special'

When four-time Grade 1 winner and Breeders' Cup Turf (G1)

hero Main Sequence (Aldebaran) was honored with two Eclipse Awards Saturday evening at

Gulfstream Park, it brought trainer Graham Motion full circle.

Main Sequence earned the

Eclipse Award for champion turf horse as well as for champion older horse after

concluding a perfect season that included wins in the United Nations (G1), Sword

Dancer Invitational (G1) and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic (G1) with a Breeders' Cup title.

The six-year-old gelding, undefeated in North America under the care of Motion, received 243 of

265 possible first-place votes for male turf horse and an additional 127 votes

for top older horse.

"I think as a trainer, you want to train a champion,"

Motion acknowledged. "It's really just so neat to be a part of that. To have it

in the record books that you've trained a champion, for me it's really

fulfilling. To be top older horse and turf horse, it's just so exciting."

Motion was especially honored to train a champion for

breeders/owners Flaxman Holdings Ltd., a group whose horses Graham can recall

following as a child in Europe.

Main Sequence gave Flaxman Holdings its fourth

Eclipse Award trophy, and, fittingly, their newest champion is a son of one of

their previous honorees. Aldebaran won the Eclipse Award for champion sprinter

in 2003.

"It's so exciting to be a part of the Niarchos of the

Flaxman Group, which is such a storied stable," Graham said. "I grew up watching

their horses run as a kid in Europe, so I never would have dreamt that I would

have trained a champion for them. That's pretty special."