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Highly Motivated wins the 2020 Nyquist Stakes on the Breeders Cup undercard
Owner Klaravich Stables and trainer Chad Brown already campaigned a winner in a Kentucky Derby qualifier in New York when Risk Taking captured the Grade 3 Withers last month. On Saturday, they will look to earn “Run for the Roses” points with stakes-winner Highly Motivated in the Grade 3, $300,000 Gotham for sophomores at Aqueduct Racetrack.
The one-turn mile event is the penultimate local qualifying prep race for the Grade 1, $3 million Kentucky Derby on May 1 at Churchill Downs, awarding the top-four finishers points via a 50-20-10-5 scale. The historic event has been a stopping point for all-time greats like 1973 Triple Crown winner Secretariat, whose final winning time of 1:33.40 was only one second and one-fifth off the world-record time set by 1967 Gotham winner Dr. Fager s 1:32.20 in the 1968 Washington Park Handicap. In 1989, Ogden Phipps Easy Goer broke Secretariat s