Mansa Musa makes U.S. debut, No Nay Mets begins comeback in Palisades

LEXINGTON, Ky. – A very good week for Team Valor International could get even better Sunday at Keeneland when Mansa Musa makes his American debut in the $250,000 Palisades Stakes, a 5 1/2-furlong turf sprint for 3-year-olds.

Mansa Musa races for Team Valor and Gary Barber, the owners of Facteur Cheval, who on March 30 won the $5 million Dubai Turf on the Dubai World Cup card. Thursday at Santa Anita, Team Valor’s Nadette landed the Grade 3, $100,000 Wilshire Stakes.

Mansa Musa is part of an overflow field of 14 entered in the Palisades, which can accommodate a dozen runners and is wildly competitive.

Favored at 5-2 on the morning line is No Nay Mets, most recently fourth of 12, beaten 1 1/2 lengths, in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Ninth in the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot last June, No Nay Mets won his three American turf sprint races, all stakes, before a creditable performance in the Breeders’ Cup.

No Nay Mets isn’t the only Palisades entrant to have raced at Royal Ascot. Fandom, a flashy debut turf sprint winner a year ago at Keeneland for trainer Wesley Ward, finished 11th in the Coventry at Ascot, his most recent outing. The depth of the Palisades is such that Fandom is listed at 15-1 on the morning line.

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The BC Juvenile Turf Sprint had been the goal for Mansa Musa before the colt, based at the time in Ireland, wrenched an ankle working before his trip to America, according to Team Valor CEO Barry Irwin. Team Valor and Barber bought Mansa Musa after he scored a second-start maiden win over 12 rivals at Goodwood in August, gamely holding on by a nose over Array, a Juddmonte homebred who later in 2023 won the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes. In a subsequent stakes start, Mansa Musa finished in front of Mountain Bear, second in the BC Juvenile Turf.

Mansa Musa made his four overseas starts at six furlongs and showed pace (and a lot of fight) in all of them. Now trained by Bill Mott, Mansa Musa missed his original target race over five furlongs at Gulfstream Park, but Mott believes, and the form suggests, this additional half-furlong helps Mansa Musa.

“I saw him when he first got out of quarantine, and he was magnificent looking,” Irwin said in a newsletter to Team Valor shareholders. “But by the time he arrived at Mott’s Payson Park stable, he had lost much of his oomph, muscle tone, and energy. But after a couple of months, he once again blossomed. I expect a representative effort from the powerful colt on the weekend.”

Mansa Musa has not worked like a horse who will blast out of the gate and try to lead; he could wind up stalking the pace in a race packed with quick sprinters.

Refuel might be the quickest of them. Drawn in post 12 while making his stakes debut after starting his career with a pair of Florida wins, Refuel will come out running.

“He’s a pretty fast horse. We’re not looking to alter his style,” trainer Todd Pletcher said.

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My Boy Prince, racing for the first time since he was third in the BC Juvenile Turf, has shown sprint speed but figures to come from behind.

“His half-mile out of the gate at Palm Meadows [on March 20] was very good. He’s got plenty of miles in him,” trainer Mark Casse said. “How far they get away from him is the question.”

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