Half-brother to Rachel Alexandra foaled in Kentucky

A half-brother to 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra was foaled last week at Dede McGehee’s Heaven Trees Farm near Lexington, Ky.

The Malibu Moon colt is out of the Roar mare Lotta Kim, who is boarded at Heaven Trees for owner Dolphus Morrison and his wife, Ellen.

Lotta Kim won the 2004 Tiffany Lass Stakes and was never worse than second in four career starts, including a runner-up effort in the Grade 2 Golden Rod Stakes, before an injury ended her career. The mare’s record as a broodmare has been star-crossed. After producing Rachel Alexandra, her first foal, in 2006, Lotta Kim didn’t produce another surviving foal until the champion’s full sister Samantha Nicole in 2011. Her 2007 foal, an Empire Maker colt named Empire Ruler, died as a 2-year-old due to wobbler’s syndrome.

Lotta Kim, who was not included in a 2012 dispersal of the Morrisons’ bloodstock, did produce a Lookin At Lucky colt, now named Dolphus, last year.

The Morrisons campaigned Rachel Alexandra her through the first 10 starts of her career with five stakes wins, including a runaway score in the 2009 Kentucky Oaks. She was subsequently privately purchased by the late Jess Jackson's Stonestreet Stables, and went on to defeat males in the Preakness, Haskell, and Woodward to lock up Horse of the Year honors. She retired with wins in 13 of 19 career starts for earnings of $3,506,730.

Samantha Nicole, a $700,000 purchase by Stonestreet out of the Morrison dispersal at the 2012 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, finished second in her career debut in February at Fair Grounds.