Moon Colony takes inside route to victory in Penn Mile

Julien Leparoux took the shortest route around the Penn National turf course with Moon Colony after breaking from post 1 in the Grade 2, $500,000 Penn Mile on Saturday and sprung a $21.60 upset.

Moon Colony, a son of Uncle Mo, who is trained by Mark Casse and owned by John Oxley. was making his first start since January. This is Casse’s second win in the Penn Mile, which was being run for the seventh time. He won the 2016 edition with the filly Catch a Glimpse.

The win was Moon Colony’s third from seven starts and his first in a stakes. He had finished fifth in the Kitten’s Joy at Gulfstream Park in early January before being given time off.

“He was kind of an underachiever early on,” Casse said. “I thought his last race was really good. We brought him home to our training center and I saw a different horse. I thought he’d run really well.”

Real News outsprinted 7-5 favorite a Thread of Blue for the early lead. Heading down the backstretch following an opening quarter in 22.71 seconds, 6-1 Real News and jockey Ty Kennedy were in a comfortable rhythm while being tracked by A Thread of Blue and 4-1 second choice Forty Under. At that point, Casa Creed was tucked down along the inside behind the top trio while being followed by Moon Colony.

Entering the far turn following a half-mile in 47.60 over the yielding course, Forty Under began to retreat, which left Real News and A Thread of Blue well clear of the rest of the field. Nearing the stretch, A Thread of Blue was being asked for more run while Casa Creed and Moon Colony began to advance.

A Thread of Blue began to flatten out in upper stretch with Real News going nicely, but Moon Colony had a full head of steam and came up the rail to take the lead and win by 1 1/4 lengths. Casa Creed took second over Real News by three-quarters of a length. It was another 4 3/4 lengths back to A Thread of Blue in fourth.

“Mark was telling me how good he’s been breezing,” Leparoux said. “We had a great trip on the fence. It worked out perfect today.”

Moon Colony completed the mile in 1:37.45, just under two seconds faster than Regal Glory was timed in the $200,000 Penn Oaks 30 minutes earlier.