H. Graham Motion

Graham Motion, who joined the MTHA Board of Directors in 2014, has won many of the most prestigious races in the United States, and horses trained by him have won almost 2,500 races and have banked more than $131 million, which is good for 14th on the all-time list of U.S. trainers by earnings.

Motion, whose family moved from England to the United States in 1980, began his career working with Jonathan Sheppard and eventually started his own stable upon the death of trainer Bernard Bond, for whom he served as assistant, in 1993 at Pimlico Race Course.Motion eventually moved to Fair Hill, where his training operation has been based for many years. Motion trains Sharing, the 2019 Maryland-Bred Horse of the Year who won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf.

Motion said top issues for Maryland racing are continuance of the current arrangement with regard to purse distribution from video lottery terminal revenue and coping with diminishing field size, which has become a national problem given sharp declines in the Thoroughbred foal crop several years ago.

Motion also said it’s important to protect purse bonuses for Maryland breeders and to continue pursuing uniformity of rules and regulations for horse racing on a national level.

Ensuring that the master plan that is part of the Racetrack and Community Development Act of 2020 is realized is critical to the future of Maryland racing, Motion said.

“It’s very important with the commitment that was made to hold The Stronach Group to what the original deal was,” Motion said. “This has tremendous consequences for us in a good way.”

Motion is an advocate for a synthetic Tapeta surface at Laurel Park as outlined in the original plan. “Another surface would. Be great,” he said. “With all the races we’ve lost on the grass this year, it would be a game-changer.”