In the $200,000 Dinner Party Stakes (G3), run as the eighth race on the Preakness undercard, the Shug McGaughey-trained Never Explain with jockey Flavien Prat aboard set the track record at Pimlico for a mile-and-an-eighth, stopping the clock in 1:46.14. 

Four races later in the $100,000 James Murphy Stakes run just prior to the Preakness, Graham Motion trainee Nagirroc broke the track record for a mile, getting the distance in 1:33.11. On Saturday’s Colonial Downs card, both are stepping up the level of competition, basically two grades each, and their trainers are hoping to see similar performances. Should they run those times once more on the firm going of Colonial’s Secretariat Turf Course, they may not only find themselves again in the winner’s circle on the same day, but also in possession of new track records, this time at Colonial Downs. Both have run well since but without collecting wins.

“I’ve been very happy with him since he ran last time,” said Motion of Nagirroc. “We kind of pinpointed this weekend as his next start. I know we entered him at Saratoga, but this was always my intention really. It was to run him here. I like the mile for him. I like the timing.”

Nagirroc ran third in the Manila Stakes at Belmont Park on July 7, where the circumference of the turf course was a factor, according to Motion.

“I think he caught [jockey Flavien Prat] off guard a little the other day,” explained Motion. “He was very sharp. The one-turn mile is a little tricky. It’s hard to get him to settle. With the two turns at Colonial, Flavien should be able to get him to settle going into the first turn.”

Nagorric is the morning line favorite (5-2) and would need a run three hundredths of a second faster to set the new Colonial mark for a mile of 1:33.09 set by Street Copper on July 27, 2021. If it means a win, Motion will take it. But as an objective, it’s not in the front of his mind.

“I’m lucky to have this guy,” added Motion, who won the 2019 Virginia Derby with English Bee and the 2021 Virginia Derby with Wootten Asset. “He’s a very talented horse. Track records? I guess they’re meant to be broken. It’s a cool thing to have, but it’s not something I look to.”

Never Explain has run twice since Preakness day without a win and finds himself in a more competitive spot. He shares third choice (6-1) in the morning line with Set Piece behind Rockemperor (5-1) and Atone, the lukewarm 7-2 favorite. Though Never Explain’s recent efforts didn’t produce wins, McGaughey believes the Arlington Million plays into his horse’s hooves.

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“He came out of the race up here, the Bowling Green (where he finished third), in good shape,” noted McGaughey. “I like the mile-and-a-quarter more than the alternatives around here going a mile-and-a-half, like in the Sword Dancer or Kentucky Downs. Without some powerhouse from Europe being in there, the way he’s been doing, I thought it was worth taking a chance. He has been running good. He never ran back this close, but he seems to be doing very well. I don’t have any qualms about doing that, and I do like the cutback from a mile-and-three-eighths to a mile-and-a-quarter.”

The Arlington Million will be contested at 10 furlongs over Colonial’s outer turf course. The current course record was set in the 2007 Virginia Derby by Red Giant with jockey Horacio Karamanos aboard. They covered the distance in 1:59.62.

A five-year-old, Never Explain has been a bit of a project for McGaughey, but the veteran conditioner says he has seen remarkable advancement over this season.

“He’s been training very well all spring and summer,” explained McGaughey. “He’s turned the corner as a racehorse in his couple of races at Tampa that he won and then going to the Dinner Party and running the way he did that day. He ran a really good race at Monmonth. It’s just that the horse run up behind him and got him into the bridle and Catnip came and got him.”

Popular from his four-year summer at Colonial Downs, Monmonth Stakes winner Catnip (8-1) trained by Michael Stidham is also entered in the Arlington Million.

“His race here [at Saratoga] in the Bowling Green was good,” added McGaughey who won the Virginia Derby at Colonial Downs in 2011 with Air Support. “I thought we were a little wide turning for home and had a big chance to win. Speed was holding so we just didn’t get there.”

Never Explain will have a new jockey, Vincent Cheminaud, in the Arlington Million. McGaughey hopes a jockey change, venue change, and distance change will change the recent fortune of his horse, too.

“I’ve had some luck with Vincent running on the grass,” observed McGaughey. “I like him and his style of riding. I do like Colonial Downs. I like their program and their surfaces, and I feel comfortable running there. I know the logistics of the whole thing. The horse has to go over there and run, not the trainer. I think Colonial Downs gives us some alternatives that we didn’t necessarily have, and I like those alternatives.”

When asked about the anticipated firm going of the Secretariat Turf Course on Saturday afternoon over a Saratoga Turf Course that’s been rain plagued, McGaughey quickly responded, “We like that.”

Motion did acknowledge that he long followed the Keeneland track record for a mile-and-a-half on the turf, set in 1999 by Bursting Forth, a horse Motion trained for NFL Hall of Famer Sam Huff. It greeted him for over twenty years every time he opened the program for a race at that distance until it was broken in 2020 by Tide of the Sea. 

Trainers are probably wise to be coy about the significance of track records, especially before a race, but don’t think they aren’t aware of them. But wins matter more.

Saying he had never won one of the three graded races being contested Saturday, Motion said they had always been “bucket-list races” for him. “I would take one of them,” he added with a laugh. “That would be fine.”