Mary Motion at sixteen is one of only four riders of that age in the country to have earned a steeplechase amateur jockey’s license. Riding against some of the best and experienced jockeys last fall on Pennsylvania Hunt Cup Day, she placed third. It was only a few years ago that Motion was tearing up the turf in the pony races at the point-to-points against the other moppets.

Her latent genes were waiting to express themselves from the start, and she caught the racing bug early. Both her mother and grandmother raced, her father Andrew is a Thoroughbred breeder, and her uncle Graham, a trainer, saddled last year’s Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom.

Motion is under the tutelage of a pair of the very best trainers in Neil Morris and Doug Fout, both in Virginia, and her sights are set on the Maryland Hunt Cup.

Read more about this talented young foxhunter/race rider in Danielle Nadler’s article in Leesburg Today.

Posted December 8, 2011