Lightning strikes twice for Catch the Moon
Bob Austin purchased the unraced mare Catch the Moon in foal for just $30,000 at the 2013 Keeneland January sale of horses of all ages. Less than three months later, she produced a Colonel John colt.
In November 2015, with that colt, Cocked and Loaded, a graded-stakes-winning juvenile, Catch the Moon took another trip through the Keeneland auction ring. Now, her value had risen, and she attracted the attention of top players, selling to Barbara Banke’s Stonestreet Farm for $240,000.
Less than a year and a half later, Stonestreet is now in the same position, watching Catch the Moon’s value continue to skyrocket. Her son Girvin captured the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes on Saturday at Fair Grounds, joining the Kentucky Derby fray and giving Catch the Moon two graded winners from as many starters.
Cocked and Loaded burst onto the scene by winning his debut in April 2015 at Keeneland in what was then a track record for 5 1/2 furlongs, then added the Tremont Stakes at Belmont, which is among the first stakes of the year for juveniles. He won the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes that fall at Churchill Downs.
Grade 3-placed sprinting the following spring, Cocked and Loaded pushed his career earnings to $491,660 by winning an allowance/optional claimer Saturday at Laurel – less than two hours before younger half-brother Girvin took the stage at Fair Grounds.
Girvin, by rising sire Tale of Ekati, has made all three career starts at the New Orleans track, winning his debut last December before finishing second in the Keith Gee Memorial Stakes in early February. In winning the Risen Star, his graded debut, he earned 50 qualifying points toward a berth in the Kentucky Derby, now less than 10 weeks away.
Catch the Moon, who is from the family of Grade 1 winner Silver Max and Canadian champion Kiss a Native, produced a colt by well-regarded young sire Shanghai Bobby last year. She’s booked to prominent classic sire Curlin, Stonestreet’s two-time Horse of the Year, this spring.
Catch the Moon is a daughter of Malibu Moon, known as an outstanding filly sire. His top representatives as a broodmare sire include champion Stellar Wind and Grade 1 winners By the Moon and My Conquestadory.