In a bizarrely run rendition of the $201,000 Rodeo Drive Stakes (G2T), Hold the Moon proved greatest with a scintillating last-to-first victory Oct. 5 at Santa Anita Park.
“For the primary time in my life I don’t know what to say,” mentioned CJ Thoroughbreds’ Michael Joyce.
Hold the Moon, one among 12 fillies the fledgling partnership bought, has now thrown her hat within the ring for essentially the most prestigious showdown of all of them within the Breeders’ Cup World Championships. The 4-year-old Uncle Mo filly, a $200,000 Keeneland September Yearling Sale purchase in 2021, earned her slot within the beginning gate together with her Rodeo Drive win, a Breeders’ Cup Problem Collection: Win and You are In occasion for the Nov. 2 $2 million Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T).
A 20-1 upset winner of the John C. Mabee Stakes (G2T) final outing for coach Phil D’Amato, Hold the Moon was nonetheless comparatively dismissed on the tote board at 9-1 for the Rodeo Drive. Ridden again by Kazushi Kimura, Hold the Moon trailed the sphere because the race performed out in peculiar trend up entrance.
“We had the suitable technique for Hold the Moon,” mentioned D’Amato. “We deliberate to do the identical factor as we did final time, sit again and include the run. She got here with a monstrous run late. It was a weirdly run race. I believed my different filly, Fortunate Woman, would sit again there with Hold the Moon, and he or she ended up being on the lead early.”
Spectacular Del Mar Oaks (G1T) winner Iscreamuscream , blew the primary flip of the 1 1/4-mile occasion, and finally misplaced her result in Fortunate Woman . The latter, usually a come-from-the-behind type, had stolen the benefit and opened up three lengths on the six-furlong marker. Into the lane, nonetheless, the sphere swallowed up the sudden pacesetter as Aspen Grove on the rail and Hold the Moon on the far outdoors stormed to the wire.
Hold the Moon swept previous a batting Aspen Grove and crossed the end line on prime by 1 1/2 lengths in a closing time of 1:58.58 over a agency turf course.
“My coronary heart was in my abdomen for a minute as a result of I didn’t know the way this was going to work out,” mentioned Joyce. “However then she begins that transfer on the flip and also you see her ramping that kick up.
“(Kimura) is aware of precisely what this filly has. And as soon as he begins shifting on her she offers it to him.”
East Coast invader Aspen Grove, transport in from the barn of Jack Sisterson, held runner-up honors by three-quarters of a size over South African import Seashore Bomb .
Favored Iscreamuscream, beforehand undefeated for D’Amato, completed fourth in her debut in opposition to older fillies and mares.
Hold the Moon ($21.80) picked up her second consecutive graded stakes win and bumped her bankroll to $427,913.
Bred in Kentucky by Repole Secure, Hold the Moon is one among three winners produced from the Malibu Moon mare Moondance.
