No sophomore slump for Uncle Mo

It would take some running for Uncle Mo’s second crop to catch up to his outstanding first crop, which currently includes 21 stakes winners, led by Kentucky Derby winner and champion Nyquist. But the young sire’s second crop is starting to come alive, with two more stakes-winning 3-year-olds over the weekend, including another Derby hopeful.

Conquest Mo Money won Sunday’s Mine That Bird Derby at Sunland Park in New Mexico; Mopotism captured the same track’s filly counterpart, the Island Fashion Stakes.

The Mine That Bird Derby, named for the 2009 Kentucky Derby winner who prepped at Sunland, serves as the major local prep for the Grade 3 Sunland Derby on March 26, which will award 50 Kentucky Derby qualifying points to the winner. The Mine That Bird was the second stakes victory of the year at Sunland for Conquest Mo Money.

Uncle Mo, who stands at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, is also represented on this year’s Derby trail by Royal Mo, the winner of the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita, and Mo Town, a Grade 2-winning juvenile who disappointed in the Grade 2 Risen Star Stakes last Saturday at Fair Grounds in his seasonal debut.