Moonlit Song towers over Charles Town allowance
Moonlit Song. Photo by Coady Photography.
Moonlit Song found the waters a little deep in two open stakes at Laurel Park in recent months. But back at home at Charles Town last month, she returned to her winning ways with a two-length score versus allowance rivals.
On Thursday, the five-year-old, West Virginia-bred Fiber Sonde mare will look to fashion a two-race win streak when she squares off against five rivals in an open $29,000 allowance contest at 6 1/2 furlongs. Moonlit Song is 3-5 on the morning line for the race, which is carded as the third of the evening.
Moonlit Song is trained by Tim Grams for his and his wife Judy’s Grams Racing Stable, and they also bred her. Gerald Almodovar has the mount.
Moonlit Song has won one of two starts thus far in 2019 and owns 14 wins from 25 career starts overall. A top four finish Thursday would push her past $400,000 in earnings.
She was the dominant local distaff runner as a three-year-old in 2017, winning eight times, capped off with a score in the West Virginia Breeders Classic Cavada. But after winning five stakes that year, in 2018 she ran second or third in all four of her stakes tries, surpassed at year-end by the speedy then-sophomore Late Night Pow Wow. She finished the year with four wins and over $129,000 in earnings from 10 starts. This year, with Late Night Pow Wow expected to hunt bigger game after her win in the Grade 3 Barbara Fritchie last month, Moonlit Song will aim to reassert herself atop the local leaderboard.
Winning Thursday would be a small step in that direction. The field includes two runners — Jacky’s Notion (9-2) and Rock n’ Gold (10-1) — she easily bested last out. The former was four lengths behind her and is the second choice here; the latter was seven lengths back.
The field also includes a pair of runners from top local trainer Jeff Runco. See Ya Manana (5-1) has won seven of 15 career starts and arrives here with a three-race win streak. Arnaldo Bocachica will ride. The latter has won seven of 20 starts and ran fourth in the 2018 Cavada — but 10 lengths behind Moonlit Song, who was the narrow runner-up to Late Night Pow Wow. Antonio Lopez is up.
The Javier Contreras trainee Boppin Rocket (10-1), with Carlos Marrero up, rounds out the field.
