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| Staff Writer |
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Although True Valour lost to two-time Breeders' Cup winner Golden Pal by a head after setting the pace in the Gr.3 Troy Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, the 8YO son of Kodiac showed owner J. Larry Johnson and trainer Graham Motion what they needed to see to give the world traveller his own shot in the Gr.1 Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland this fall.
True Valour was 10th in the 2019 TVG Breeders' Cup Mile Gr.1 at Santa Anita Park when trained by Simon Callaghan for Qatar Racing before Johnson bought him for $225,000 in the 2020 Fasig-Tipton July Horses of Racing Age Sale.
Winner of the April 23 King T. Leatherbury Stakes at Laurel Park, True Valour came off a third in the Gr.1 Jaipur Stakes at Belmont Park. Making a successful return to the races after missing much of 2021 due to a minor hairline fracture, he has gone straight to the lead in each of his three starts this year.
Bred in Ireland by Mr. P. O'Rourke out of the Acclamation (GB) mare Sutton Veny, True Valour sold to agent David Redvers for the equivalent of US$112,030 from Tally-Ho Stud's consignment to the Gorsebridge Flat Breeze-Up Sale in 2016, and began his career for Qatar Racing and trainer J.P. Murtagh in Ireland. He won the 2018 Ballycorus Stakes (G3) at Leopardstown Racecourse, his 14th and final European start. After running in Ireland and England, he found himself on the West Coast with Callaghan, where he won the 2019 Gr.3 Thunder Road Stakes and the Ge.2City of Hope Mile (G2T) through 10 starts before he sold to Johnson and moved into Motion's barn.
In nine starts for Motion, True Valour has left no dust on his passport or his tack trunk. He's raced at Churchill Downs, Pimlico Race Course, Woodbine in Canada, Aqueduct Racetrack, Santa Anita, Meydan in Dubai, Laurel Park, Belmont, and Saratoga. Overall, he has a 7-4-9 record from 34 starts, with earnings of $690,237.