Sharing Dominates $200,000 Selima Stakes

Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Gainesway Stables’ Sharing grabbed all the attention in Saturday’s $200,000 Selima Stakes at Laurel Park with a dominating performance that may very well have earned the daughter of Speightstown a start on this year’s Breeders’ Cup program Nov. 1.

Trained by Graham Motion, Sharing established herself as a strong candidate for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) at Santa Anita with a 2 ½-length decision in the 1 1/16-mile stakes for 2-year-old fillies run over the All Along Turf Course.

“We’re hoping to get to the Breeders’ Cup. That’s why we came here. Hopefully, this race is a good steppingstone because it’s a $200,000 race. Hopefully, this will get us into the Breeders’ Cup,” Motion said.

Sharing is a daughter of Shared Account, whom Motion saddled for a victory in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1)

“She was one of my favorite mares. Any time you win big races like that, it’s pretty special to you,” Motion said. “She had a very kind personality, and this filly is very similar.”

Jockey Manuel Franco placed Sharing in a prime stalking position behind pacesetter Sunset Promise, who showed the way to her six rivals while setting fractions of 23.51 and 48.56 seconds for the first half-mile. Sharing was sent three-wide on the turn entering the stretch and the Maryland-bred filly continued on to register a comfortable decision.

“[Franco] said she got to looking around a little when she got the lead, but she did it the way I hoped she’d do it,” Motion said. “I would have been disappointed if she hadn’t probably because she seems like she’s that caliber.”

Sharing ran 1 1/16 miles on firm turf in 1:42.61. Sunset Promise held second under Alex Cintron, 2 ½ lengths ahead of Love Beach and jockey Trevor McCarthy.

First run in 1926, the Selima is named for the great English race mare who was imported to the U.S. in the 1750s by Benjamin Tasker Jr., manager of the famed Belair Farm in Prince George’s County. The daughter of the Godolphin Arabian, considered ‘Queen of the Turf,’ also gained fame as a broodmare.