Motion, Billy Howland, and hip #202

On Saturday morning, Andrew Motion didn’t look like a man who hadn’t had much sleep over the last couple days. Two days earlier, he’d loaded a yearling filly onto a van and driven overnight to Saratoga from his Upperville, VA farm; three days before he’ll send his first horse through the auction ring here, he was chatting with prospective buyers and lauding his filly’s selling points.

The Fasig-Tipton sales grounds are a familiar place to him. In the ‘80s he worked on the grounds crew, mucking stalls, and he was working for Heronwood Farm when Virginia-bred Rubiano sold as a yearling to Virginia-based Centennial Farm for $650,000 in 1988.

“This is the first time I’ve gotten to bring my own, though,” he said. “I’m thrilled.”

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