Dancing Rags, Angel Cruz up, breaks her maiden at Laurel. Photo: Jim McCue/MJC

Back in August, Dancing Rags debuted at Laurel for trainer Graham Motion. Despite her dirt pedigree, Motion elected to start the Union Rags filly on the turf, not an unusual decision for him with first-time starters.

“I like to start some of them on the grass,” said the trainer by phone from California. “It’s much easier on them and there’s no kickback, and at Fair Hill I don’t train my horses to take kickback.”

She finished third in that grass sprint, beaten by four lengths, the chart noting that she ran “with interest,” and Motion brought her back at Laurel six weeks later, but this time on the dirt, and this time at a mile.

“It was natural to stretch her out,” said Motion, “I always thought that she’d handle dirt very well. I worry about pegging horses as grass horses too early. She’d run well and I didn’t want to assume that from that point on she was going to be a grass horse.”

Good call.

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