Fair or not, few trainers are as closely associated with turf racing as is Graham Motion. And few North American racetracks card as high a percentage of grass races as does Colonial Downs.

Yet here we are, just about midway through the 2024 Colonial meet, and Motion has sent out just three starters in New Kent without, yet, a winner.

That may change Sunday, though. Motion has runners entered in each of the three graded stakes scheduled at Colonial Downs, and while one, Trikari, was also cross-entered at Saratoga, the trainer said midweek he expected to run all three in Virginia.

“We’re stabled at Saratoga, so we’re trying to run up there a little bit,” Motion explained. “We’re stabled at Delaware. I like to run at Laurel. I think it’s such a shame that these racetracks are competing. I think that’s frustrating. So I need to feel good to run a horse down at Colonial; it’s a tough ship.”

He feels pretty good about his Sunday trio, though. He’ll send out Highland Chief, 12-1 on the morning line, in the featured Grade 1 Arlington Million. One race earlier, he’ll saddle Mission of Joy (6-1) in the Grade 2 Beverly D., and one race prior to that, it’ll be Trikari (3-1) in the Grade 2 Secretariat.

Despite his long odds, Highland Chief, a seven-year-old Irish-bred horse by Gleneagles, is one of just two runners in the Million already in possession of a Grade 1 victory, the other being the 8-5 morning line favorite Nations Pride, for trainer Charlie Appleby.

Highland Chief’s Grade 1 win came in the 2022 Man O’ War at Belmont Park, and later that same year he won Keeneland’s Grade 3 Sycamore before finishing twelfth in the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

This year, he finished fifth in the Grade 2 Elkhorn, fourth in the Grade 3 Dinner Party on the Preakness undercard, and last out, second in the $100,000 Prince George’s County at Laurel. It’s not exactly the resume you’d hope to see on a horse bumping back into Grade 1 company.

“I’ve been frustrated that he hasn’t [won another Grade 1],” Motion said. “I don’t get why he hasn’t, because to me he’s trained… I was so excited to run this horse the way he was training in the winter. So I’m kind of scratching my head a little bit.”

That said, though, if you look a little closer, he sure looks like a horse with some excuses. Take the PG County; that race scratched down to four, and only Forever Souper had any early speed at all. He went straight to the front and never looked back, while Highland Chief finished a willing second. And the Dinner Party took place over a boggy Pimlico course in which outside was the place to be, which was unfortunate for Highland Chief, who drew the one-hole.

“A couple of weird races,” Motion acknowledged. “[The Prince George’s County] was just a weirdly run race, and I didn’t like it. I was worried about it going into it.”

As for the 12-furlong Elkhorn: “I question my own judgment whether I should have run him a mile-and-a-half the first time,” Motion said. “Maybe it was too tough to do that, you know? I’ve got to give him a little bit of an excuse in that one.”

Highland Chief is showing one five-furlong breeze since the July 14 Laurel race and will be reunited with jockey John Velazquez, who won the Sycamore aboard him.

“I really like the mile-and-a-quarter for him,” Motion said of the Arlington Million. “I know it’s a competitive race, but on his best day, he can run with these horses. We just haven’t seen that this year.”

One race prior, Motion will leg Velazquez up on Mission of Joy, a multiple Grade 3 winner owned by RyZan Sun Racing LLC and Madaket Stables. A four-year-old Kitten’s Joy filly, Mission of Joy will make her sixth consecutive start in Grade 1 or Grade 2 company.

The bad news: Mission of Joy has lost all of those, in fact, all seven of her prior Grade 1 or Grade 2 starts, though many of them were good. Among those good outings was a fast-closing third, beaten just a half-length, in the Just A Game at Saratoga June 7.

“I think some people question that I keep coming back in these races,” Motion said. “She’s very close to winning one of these, with a good trip. She just needs a little luck.”

It’s a small field of six that’s slated to face the starter, and Motion believes that the Canada-based Moira, the 9-5 morning line favorite, is likely to stay home and run in the Grade 2 Canadian at Woodbine. If so, that would leave favoritism likely to Fev Rover (2-1), who is the defending champ but whose two 2024 starts are not quite up to the level she displayed last year.

Distance is, perhaps, one question Mission of Joy will need to answer. The 1 3/16 miles is farther than she’s run before, though she has run well at 1 1/8 miles previously, including a win at that distance in the Grade 3 Regret at Churchill Downs.

One race prior, Motion will send out Amerman Racing’s Trikari in the Grade 2, one-mile Secretariat. Trikari is, at 3-1, the second choice on the morning line in a field of nine that will end up eight or fewer. Fulmineo, the Boston Stakes winner here July 13, is in Saratoga, where he’ll run in the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational, trainer Arnaud Delacour said Friday. First World War (7-2) is also entered in that race.

Trikari, a three-year-old Oscar Performance colt, is also a horse who continually outruns his odds, strangely, for a runner who has four wins from seven starts and earnings of just shy of one million dollars. His odds in his four wins have been 26-1, 4-1, 47-1, and, most recently, 5-1.

The last of those came in the Grade 1 Belmont Derby in which he bested White Palomino and Legend of Time. That was at 1 3/16 miles; the Secretariat is a mile.

“I think he’s a pretty good miler,” Motion said of his charge. “I think he can go further, but I’m not really looking to make him a mile-and-a-half horse. I don’t think he’s that kind of horse.”

His three wins prior to the Belmont Derby score all came at 1 1/16 miles. In his lone try at a mile, he finished third, beaten just a neck, in the Grade 3 Penn Mile, which First World War won. In that race, he pressed the early pace and had a head in front in mid-stretch but couldn’t quite seal the deal.

“He has a pretty good turn of foot, so I like the mile for him,” Motion added.

The Secretariat will be Trikari’s sixth start of the season, and he’s worked twice, a half-mile on the dirt and five-eighths on the synthetic, since the Belmont Derby.

“He’s so willing to train every day,” Motion said. “My concern has been running him back too frequently because he’s so generous, and he’s so full of himself in the mornings. But I think sometimes that can be deceptive. But he’s doing great, and I couldn’t be happier with him.”

It’s a nice group of horses Motion is set to bring to Colonial Downs, and if all goes to plan, he will double his season starts at Colonial in a single day. And, ideally, he’ll see that zero in the win column become a one, two, or even a three.

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