Better Talk Now, staging a late bid for an Eclipse Award, will be flown to California on Tuesday for the $250,000 Hollywood Turf Cup (gr. IT) Saturday, trainer H. Graham Motion said Sunday from his base at Fair Hill, Md."He will fly out from New York on a Tex Sutton charter," said Motion of the Breeders' Cup Turf winner, who will be accompanied by exercise rider Fenella O'Flynn. Motion will arrive Tuesday evening to saddle his first starter in California.Better Talk Now, a 5-year-old gelding, worked Thursday at Fair Hill for the first time since his Breeders' Cup Turf (gr. IT) upset at Lone Star Park on Oct. 30."He breezed seven-eighths on the wood chips in 1:33 2/5 around two turns," said Motion. "I was pleased with him. Of course, he didn't work well before the Breeders' Cup, and he won that."Motion said he would not mind some more rain here this week. Better Talk Now won the Breeders' Cup race on a yielding course and won the Sword Dancer (gr. IT) on a yielding Saratoga course in August. Maryland-based rider Ramon Dominguez retains the mount after an auspicious Hollywood Park debut Friday with stakes victories aboard Cajun Beat in the $150,000 Hollywood Turf Express Handicap (gr. IIIT) and Louvain in a $75,000 division of the Miesque Stakes (gr. IIIT), both on grass.
"He will just gallop up to the race after he arrives," said Motion of Better Talk Now's preparatory plans for the 1 1/2-mile grass event.