Trainer Graham Motion will keep multiple grade I winner Miss Temple City stateside for the near future, with a return to Royal Ascot the goal for the 4-year-old Temple City filly next June.
While Miss Temple City was invited to the Dec. 11 Hong Kong Mile (HK-I), a race champion turf mare Tepin also opted to bypass, Motion's runner will instead contest the Dec. 4 Matriarch Stakes (gr. IT) at Del Mar.
Motion said the filly's connections regrouped on their strategy for 2017, hoping to be able to bring her back to England in the spring. She finished fourth in the June 15 Duke of Cambridge Stakes (Eng-II) there this season.
The Club Racing, Allen Rosenblum, and Sagamore Farm own Miss Temple City, who in 2016 defeated males at the top level in both the Maker's 46 Mile (gr. IT) and the Shadwell Turf Mile (gr. IT), both at Keeneland. She was the first filly ever to win the Maker's 46 Mile, and finished fifth in the Nov. 5 Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. IT) last out.
NOVAK: Miss Temple City Scores in Shadwell Turf Mile
"Our concerns were (a trip to Hong Kong) was going to set her back from being able to run early on next year," Motion said. "She obviously likes Keeneland. We'd really like to get back to England.
"I did leave her in California just in case we either went to Hong Kong or ran at Del Mar."
Motion has another prospect in his barn he hopes is half as good as Miss Temple City. The 2-year-old filly Five Each Way, Miss Temple City's half sister, is entered Nov. 18 in a one-mile maiden special weight turf test at Laurel Park.
The juvenile Bullet Train filly, owned by Allen Rosenblum and The Club Racing, and bred by Bobfeld Bloodstock and Aaron Jutte out of the Artax mare Glittering Tax, has been training at Fair Hill.
Stating that it would be unfair to compare the siblings, Motion said this filly has been ready to race for some time.
"She's been ready to run for a while," he remarked. "I'm a little bit desperate to run her because we are running out of opportunities to run her on the grass. That's why she's running in Maryland and I think she'll handle the two turns fine."
Five Each Way was bred in New York, but missed the opportunity to run at Saratoga Race Course this summer.
"It's not exactly what I was looking to do with her," Motion said. "I really wanted to get her started in New York sprinting because she is a New York-bred. It's a shame not being able to take advantage of that program.
"We just missed Saratoga and haven't been able to get her in since. We decided to wait for Belmont and we just haven't been able to get her in with the weather. She's been entered several times, but really she was either on the also-eligibles or the race came off the grass or any of those things."
Five Each Way is from the first crop of group III winner Bullet Train, who competed at the top level in Europe. Bullet Train, who will stand the 2017 season for $7,500 at Crestwood Farm, is a half brother to European Horse of the Year Frankel.
Glittering Tax also produced grade III winner Pricedtoperfection, a full sister to Miss Temple City. Out of her six foals to race, the mare delivered three other winners.
Motion will also send out Expect a Kitten in Laurel's sixth race. It will be the fourth start for the filly owned by Secure Investments.
Florida-bred Emphatically will make her third start, having finished fourth and fifth in her first two races.
A homebred for Glen Hill Farm, Emphatically is by Scat Daddy out of the 2005 Arlington Matron Handicap (gr. III) winner Indy Groove (A. P. Indy). Indy Groove finished sixth behind Ashado and Storm Flag Flying in the 2004 Breeders' Cup Distaff Presented by NexTel (gr. I).
