2 Year Old Pedigree Spotlight: By the Moon

 

Regal Bloodlines is a blog dedicated to examining 2 year old horses whose pedigree points towards success on the race track. By studying their family ties I hope to answer such questions as, “Will they become excellent sprinters or routers” and “How much distance can they get”? These horses come from the best sires and dams out there of days past and today. I believe they have an arrow pointed up towards greatness.

Horse: By the Moon (Indian Charlie- By the Light, by Malibu Moon)

Recent Performance:

By the Moon broke her maiden at first asking winning a 5½ furlong MSW sprint on Saratoga’s opening day by ¾ lengths.  She was ridden by Jose L. Ortiz and is trained by Michelle Nevin and is owned by Jay Em Ess Stable. She followed that effort up with a nice second place finish in the Grade One Spinaway Stakes at Saratoga. No one was going to catch Condo Commando in the slop (she was the speed) but By the Moon closed well on a track not suited for her style of running and finished well ahead of the third place finisher, G1 winner Angela Renee. Here is a video of that performance.

Her upcoming race is this Saturday in the Grade One Frizette Stakes at Belmont Park where she’s an 8-1 morning line and is fifth choice behind Condo Commando, Cavorting, Feathered and Wonder Gal. Let’s take a look at her pedigree to see why I see her breeding as being very distinguished and how she can be a major factor in this race.

Dam: By the Light 

By the Moon is out of the NY bred mare By the Light, who had a very nice career on the race track as a sprinter. Trained by Rick Dutrow, By the Light began her career by winning her first five races by a combined 21 lengths before running second to superstar filly Indian Blessing in the 2008 Grade I Prioress Stakes. By The Light won 9 stakes races at 5 tracks between the ages of 2 and four, including winning The Delta Princess Stakes at 2 against open company and defeating males in The New York Breeders’ Futurity Stakes at 2 as well.  Overall out of 20 starts she was 10-3-3 earning a nice $885,632. Her only other foal in racing is winless over 2 starts.

Dam Sire: Malibu Moon

By the Moon’s dam sire is the well built Malibu Moon, who had an extremely short racing career but has had an enormous amount of success as a sire so far in his breeding career. Malibu Moon only raced 2 times, suffering a career-ending fracture of the knee following his maiden victory in May 1999. What’s important to note here is that as stallion prospects, horses who do not win a single stakes race manage to succeed as sires only at a rate of less than 1 percent. Here are the highlights of his spectacular career so far in the breeding shed:

• 84 Stakes Winners
• 31 Graded Stakes Winners
• 9 Grade I winners
• 70 Million Dollars in Earnings
• Sired 2013 Kentucky Derby Champion Orb, Devil May Care (owns Mother Goose stakes record), Ask the Moon (Personal Ensign heroine), Life at Ten (2 X GI winner) and Declan’s Moon (American 2 year old champion 2004) amongst others.

Malibu Moon’s offspring are noted for great speed and their ability to carry it. It also seems he’s passed along a competitive fire onto them as well.

Extended Distaff Family:

By the Light’s 2nd dam sire is none other than hall of famer and 2-time sire of the year A.P. Indy. As a racehorse A.P. Indy won The Santa Anita Derby, The Belmont Stakes and The Breeders’ Cup Classic on his way to earning just under 3 million dollars in just 11 starts. He’s known to give off stamina and soundness into his offspring, which can be found in sons such as the great Mineshaft and Bernardini and champion daughter Rags to Riches. Her third Dam Sire is Triple Crown Winner Seattle Slew. So if my belief is accurate that By the Moon will receive stamina from her 2nd and 3rd dam Sire, this filly will not lack the ability to cover a distance of ground. By the Moon’s second dam is Dixie Tempo. She was a very durable racehorse, running 58 times and winning 10. Dixie Tempo is a full sister to Grade-winning dirt and turf stakes winner Queen of Wilshire ($441,102) and is a half-sister to the six-time winning dam of 2008 stakes-placed winning three-year old Summer Haze. This is the female family of 1980 Eclipse Champion Juvenile Filly Heavenly Cause and 1983 Wood memorial winner Bounding Basque($1,256,258).

As you can see by looking at By The Moon’s distaff female line she is given speed from her dam and also her dam sire Malibu Moon is a dirt miler type of sire. There is class from her first 2 dams and she should be able to cover some distance by looking at her 2nd and 3rd dam sires. The way she won with a closing rush in her maiden victory suggests just that. Now lets move on to her sire line.

Sire and Sire Line:

By the Moon is by Indian Charlie who had 4 wins out of 5 career starts, including winning the Santa Anita Derby in 1998 (equaling a stakes record) and finishing 3rd to Real Quiet in the 1998 Kentucky Derby. He is more importantly known for his work in the breeding shed where is has become a Sire of Champions.Indian Charlie’s most well known champion progeny are Fleet Indian, Indian Blessing, Indian Apple Is and Uncle Mo. Indian Charlie died at the age of 16 in 2011 after a battle with cancer. For a career Indian Charlie’s foals recorded 40 Graded/Group wins and earned more than 42 million dollars. Indian Charlie gave off a great deal of speed on to his offspring. This was probably due to his dad In Excess, who has been an influence of classy speed as a sire. On the track he was a very strong miler/9 furlong type who won once at a 1 1/4 . He was bred to Soviet Sojourn, who won GIII races at two at 6 and 6 1/2 furlongs. The 3rd Sire, Siberian Express, won Group Ones at 6 Furlongs and a mile.

Final Analysis:

In conclusion, you can tell from By the Moon’s sire line that she is bred with brilliant speed. Mix this in with a good amount of stamina on her dam side and classy mares as well and we may, from my estimation, be looking at a filly who can become either a successful sprinter or one who is better suited for routes. For this particular race though she has enough stamina to stay the course and we may see her flying late while speedy types like Condo Commando, Cavorting and Feathered give way.