Moonshine Mullin thrills Kansas town

Mere seconds after Moonshine Mullin pulled his 10-1 upset Saturday night in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster Handicap at Churchill Downs, trainer Randy Morse stood all alone in the middle of the racetrack, waiting for his stable star to return.

Morse might have been imagining how all the folks back in Anthony, Kan., were behaving. Anthony, a horse-crazy town of fewer than 3,000 people on the state’s south-central border, is where owner Randy Patterson lives. Patterson claimed Moonshine Mullin for $40,000 in November.

“Believe it or not, there might be more racing fans per capita in Anthony than anywhere in the world,” said Morse, who won a Grade 1 for the first time in his 34-year career. “On any given day in this one bar, there are two games of racetrack rummy going on.”

Until a few years ago, when the town’s unsanctioned track finally was torn down, races for Thoroughbreds, Quarter Horses, and greyhounds were held in Anthony.