After a year that saw Mission of Joy go 0-for-6, all against graded stakes company, trainer Graham Motion is taking a different approach with the 5-year-old mare this year.

To that end, the two-time Grade 3 winner will look to bolster her credentials and confidence in Sunday’s $100,000 Miss Liberty Stakes at Monmouth Park, her second straight start in a non-graded stakes.

The daughter of Kitten’s Joy won her seasonal debut on April 25 in an optional $100,000 claimer at Tampa Bay Downs, snapping a nine-race losing streak. Some perspective on that: Of her 16 career starts, 11 have been in graded stakes.

“Probably to my detriment I got a little carried away with her last year,” said Motion. “She was beaten a half-length in the (Grade 1) Just A Game Stakes (at Saratoga last June 7) and I think pretty much after that I put her feet to the fire a little bit.

“So we’ve re-grouped and want to get her back on track.”

The Miss Liberty Stakes, at a mile and a sixteenth on the grass for fillies and mares 3 and up, offers an important next step, according to Motion. She will face seven rivals in the feature race.

Another graded stakes race try is very much on the radar, Motion said, especially since the winner of the Miss Liberty Stakes earns free entry and start fees to the Grade 3 WinStar Matchmaker Stakes on the July 19 NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes day undercard.

“It’s going to come down to this weekend,” said Motion, who has trained 14 different Grade 1 winners, among them 2011 Kentucky Derby winner and 2013 Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom. “If she handles things well then we’ll progress to a graded stakes again.”

Mission of Joy, owned by RayZan Sun Racing LLC and Madaket Stanles LLC, picked up a pair of Grade 3 wins (the Regret Stakes at Churchill Downs and the Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs) in 2023. She has been third in a pair of Grade 1 races as well – the Just a Game Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup.

Of her 16 career starts, 15 have been on the grass. The other was over synthetic.

Now Motion is looking for the Canadian-bred Mission of Joy to re-gain her confidence against non-graded stakes company for a second straight start.

“I never quite know how overrated that is from a horse’s point of view,” he said. “But I think there is something to it. This is about giving her a chance away from those graded races and hoping to build up to it again. That’s certainly in our mind with her.”

Mission of Joy has won five races overall with three thirds for career earnings of $526,632.

The field for the Miss Liberty Stakes from the rail out: Dreaming of Abba, Fun With Flags, Damaso, Precious Avary, Spaliday, Mohawk Trail, Joyful Lass and Mission of Joy.