Gimme a Nother Looks to Break South Africa’s Breeders’ Cup Drought
By Mike Kane
After what Gimme a Nother (SAF) has shown trainer Graham Motion, a request for more horses of her quality might well be gimme a dozen.
In two seasons in Motion’s care the 6yo South African-bred mare has compiled a 4-3-0 record from eight starts. She enters the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) Saturday on a four-race winning streak that she extended on Sept. 12 in the E.P. Taylor (G1) at Woodbine.
Gimme a Nother was headed to the Breeders’ Cup last year at Del Mar, but that plan had to be scuttled when she was found to have a splint. Unbeaten in three starts this year, she is 10-1 on the morning line after drawing the rail in the 14-horse field.
South African-breds are 0-for-5 in the Breeders’ Cup. Motion has handled the three most recent runners over the past two years and is quite familiar with the challenges of getting the imports to the World Championship event. He said it’s all about patience.
Gimme a Nother races for Newstead Stables, LLC, the U.S.-based operation of Jessica and Steven Jell, whose family bred her in South Africa, where she started her career with trainer Michael de Kock.
“She came to us, obviously, with great expectations,” Motion said. “She was undefeated in South Africa with Mike. He was really helpful with all the horses that have come to me from South Africa, but particularly this filly. He always encouraged me to run her a little further. He always thought she would handle extra distance. I think it took us a couple of races, maybe, whether it’s for her to figure out a slightly different style of racing or for us to figure her out. I found a little bit with all these South African horses. There’s been a little bit of a learning curve, but obviously once she did, she hasn’t stopped since.”
Motion said that changes in the quarantine rules have helped the transition and improved the chances of the imports from South Africa to succeed. Previously, the horses had to spend two months at a quarantine barn in Newburgh, NY, about 70 miles north of New York City. Nowadays, some exercise and training is permitted.
“The original shipment that came over when they lifted the quarantine. I think we there might have been 12 horses on the flight, and I think half a dozen of them came to me,” Motion said. “That included Isivunguvungu and Beach Bomb, who came to us because they had won “Win and You’re In” races, and that the goal was to get them to the Breeders’ Cup, which we did, which was remarkable, really. They both honestly ran very respectably.”
Beach Bomb was eighth in the 2024 Filly & Mare Turf and Isivunguvungu was a very close seventh in the Turf Sprint on the same card.
“Gimme a Nother was the first one that came to me under the new quarantine guidelines, which were much less intrusive,” Motion said. “They actually do a month quarantine in South Africa, and then they could travel to Europe and spend two months in Europe, where they were able to train before they could come to me.
That made it a lot easier than the first group, Isivunguvungu and Beach Bomb, they actually had to do two months in Newburgh in a barn where they weren’t allowed to get out to exercise, which was very, very tough on them. We’ve sort of had up to half a dozen. One Strike – who was 13th in the Mile in 2025 – we’d hoped to get back to the Breeders’ Cup this year, but he came up with an injury.”
Gimme a Nother’s only off-the-board finish for Motion was in the 2025 New York (G1) over a yielding course at Saratoga. Motion said he made a mistake by not scratching her.
From Saratoga, Gimme a Nother was second by a head in the Canadian (G2) at Woodbine and started her win streak in the John C. Mabee at Del Mar. Then the splint was discovered, forcing a layoff.
Gimme a Nother did not race gain until June 13 when she won the Eatontown (G3) at Monmouth Park.
“That was really encouraging because you just never know when you come back off a break like that,” Motion said. “She’d had a couple of little issues over the winter. She’d had a couple of teeth removed, which was very unusual. I’ve never dealt with that. She actually had to go under anesthesia to have a couple of teeth removed, and that’s why she ended up being away for so long. I think it was just so cool to get her back on track in that race at Monmouth, and also the timing of that sort of set us up for the rest of the year, in order to get her to the Breeders’ Cup in November. The spacing was kind of why we chose that race.”
Gimme a Nother took another huge step forward on Aug. 1, winning the Beverly D (G2) by a neck under Hall of Famer John Velazquez. It has proven to be a good partnership. They also won the E.P. Taylor by a neck.
“I put him on going to Colonial,” Motion said, “because I really was hoping that she could get to the Breeders’ Cup, and I wanted to have the best available if we got to the Breeders’ Cup. I’m just so glad he’s had a chance to get to know her. I think that’s a real plus for us going into this next race that Johnny knows her well.”
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File image: Candiese Lenferna
