Kentucky Derby: Catch the Moon shooting for stars with Midnight Bourbon
Catch the Moon has already established herself as a star broodmare. A win by her son Midnight Bourbon in the Kentucky Derby would put her in the stratosphere.
Catch the Moon, an unraced Malibu Moon mare, has produced four graded stakes winners, all by different stallions, from four starters. Midnight Bourbon will be the second Derby starter for the 12-year-old mare at a relatively young age. Her first representative was Girvin, 13th in 2017.
"She's a beautiful mare," said Barbara Banke, whose Stonestreet Stables purchased Catch the Moon for $240,000 at the 2015 Keeneland November breeding stock sale. "She's something else."
Catch the Moon's first foal was the Colonel John colt Cocked and Loaded, who won the Tremont Stakes and the Grade 3 Iroquois Stakes as a juvenile in 2015. He went on to be Grade 3-placed as a 3-year-old.
Girvin, by Tale of Ekati, won the Grade 2 Risen Star and Grade 2 Louisiana Derby to earn his way into the Kentucky Derby, but his preparations for the classic were hampered by foot trouble. He went on to win the Grade 1 Haskell Invitational that summer, and eventually retired as a millionaire. Pirate's Punch, Catch the Moon's 2016 foal by Shanghai Bobby, won the Grade 3 Salvator Mile last year to continue his dam's outstanding run.
Midnight Bourbon is by Tiznow, making him bred on the same cross as Cocked and Loaded, whose sire Colonel John is also by Tiznow. The colt was purchased for $525,000 by Winchell Thoroughbreds at the 2019 Keeneland September yearling sale. last year, the colt was second in the Iroquois before running third in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes. This season, in New Orleans, he won the Grade 3 Lecomte, finished third in the Risen Star, and was second in the Louisiana Derby.
Next in the pipeline for Catch the Moon will be Cawkab, a Curlin colt who was purchased for $525,000 by Shadwell Stables at last September's Keeneland sale. Back at Stonestreet, the mare delivered a Quality Road colt in February 2020, and had a "terrific" Curlin colt this February. Banke sent the mare back to Quality Road this season, and is hoping for a filly to eventually follow her dam into the broodmare band.
"I'm dying for a filly!" Banke said.