The familiar red and blue Herringswell sign is gone, as are the matching table and chairs that for years had been set up on the backstretch at Saratoga Race Course, right in the middle of the final turn. It was one of the most prominent and visible spots on the main track backstretch, a high-traffic area that practically invited passersby to stop by and chat.

This year, trainer Graham Motion gave up that barn, bringing up to Saratoga only a small string of horses from his Fair Hill base. Those horses are stabled in the Phipps barn, tucked all the way at the back of the Oklahoma training facility; this year, if you want to talk to Motion or see his horses, you’ve got to work for it.

And the way Motion’s summer is going, you might never see him back on the main track again.

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Varenka (outside, white and green) and Regal Glory (inside, #5) hit the wire together in the Grade 2 Lake Placid Stakes. Photo by NYRA/Elsa Lorieul