Motion’s Delaware Park dominance shapes stakes identity again

H. Graham Motion has made Delaware Park part of his own racing map, and the numbers explain why the meet still bends toward him. Since Power Play gave him his first Delaware Park stakes win in the 1997 Delaware Handicap, Motion has piled up 55 stakes victories at the Stanton oval, including 10 in the Robert G. Dick Memorial and three in the Delaware Oaks. He has also won at least one Delaware Park stake in 26 of the past 29 seasons, a run that gives the track’s biggest days a familiar and influential name before a horse even leaves the barn.

That history matters again as Delaware Park opens its 89th live season on May 13 with daily post time at 12:20 p.m. The 2026 meet will run 75 days and carry a $4.3 million stakes slate, with Delaware Derby Day set for June 13 and Delaware Handicap day scheduled for September 26. On June 13, the track plans six stakes worth $1.3 million, led by the Delaware Derby, Grade III Delaware Oaks and Grade III Robert G. Memorial. Those are the races where Motion has repeatedly turned a regional program into a national talking point.

The recent evidence is already there. Motion won three stakes from four starters in 2025, and one of them was Fondly in the Delaware Oaks. Fondly won the Grade III race at 1 1/16 miles by three lengths in 1:45.61, collected $339,200, and improved her record to three wins from four starts. She had entered off a Virginia Oaks victory after a Kentucky Oaks effort in which she was unplaced, and Motion said afterward that she was “as talented as any 3-year-old filly I have had.”

For horseplayers, the practical read is simple: when Delaware’s signature races arrive, Motion’s runners belong on every short list. His record in the Robert G. Dick Memorial alone stretches across decades, with wins in 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2009, 2016, 2017, 2023 and 2025, and Equibase says the race has been run at Delaware Park since 1976. The benchmark figures are not soft, either: Memories of Silver’s 1:43.66 in 1998 remains the fastest time, Honey Ryder’s 5 1/4-length win in 2005 is the largest margin, and Honey Ryder’s 116 speed figure in 2006 stands as the highest winning mark. With Fair Hill Training Center only nine miles away, Motion’s operation has the kind of local efficiency that keeps translating into stakes results when Delaware Park’s best days arrive.