Child of the Moon gets perfect trip to top Brown exacta in Athenia

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Chad Brown’s dominance of the Athenia Stakes continued Saturday at Aqueduct and he may have found a prospect for 2025 to replace a number of older turf females likely to be retired or sold at year’s end.

In her North American stakes debut, Child of the Moon rallied stoutly under Manny Franco to run by the Brown-trained Prerequisite and win the Athenia by a neck. It was 1 3/4 lengths back to Tufani in third.

It was the ninth victory for Brown in the Athenia, eight of them coming in the last seven years. It was the 59th stakes win of the year for Brown, 25 of them coming in the female turf division with 18 different horses. Some of those horses – such as Gina Romantica, Whitebeam, McKulick and Chili Flag – are likely to retired or be sold at year’s end.

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Child of the Moon could have a future after being sidelined for more than a year when she was first purchased out of Europe by a group that includes Louis Lazzinnaro, Sol Kumin, and Michael Dubb.

“She had a problem when she came over, we had to give her some time off and the partners were really patient with her and it really paid off,” Brown said. “A lot of people played a role in rehabbing her.”

Child of the Moon, a French-bred daughter of The Grey Gatsby ran twice in Saratoga, finishing second in a first-level allowance off a 13-month layoff before clearing that condition on Sept. 2.

Saturday, Franco gave Child of the Moon the trip Brown wanted. She was covered up along the rail racing since of Thirty Thou Kelvin, about five lengths off the pace. Meanwhile, Prerequisite, under Flavien Prat, was sitting third, stalking Spirit and Glory and Edict who were a half-length part through six furlongs in 1:13.64.

In upper stretch, Prerequisite got first run on the leaders, made the lead just before the eighth pole, but couldn’t hold off Child of the Moon who won for the third time in eight starts.

“He told me before the race try to get cover and try to get her to switch off and when I make my move try to be in the clear,” Franco said. “I got the perfect trip. By the five-sixteenths pole I went between horses and then I was able to go around his other filly. When she hit the clear, she gave me a nice kick home.”

Brown credited Franco with following instructions to the letter.

“On every step of the turf course she was where we thought and hoped she’d be,” Brown said.

Child of the Moon covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.63 over firm turf and returned $11 as the third choice.

Prat said he had the trip he was looking for on Prerequisite and was just second best on the day.

“I thought the trip was good, I felt we went pretty easy, I was trying to get the jump which I did and I just got caught late,” he said.

Brown didn’t have an immediate plan for Child of the Moon.

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