Although his talented homebred mare Full Moon Lover boasts 11 wins and over $280,000 banked from 30 career tries, trainer Ronney Brown admits her early success initially caught him by surprise.

Full Moon Lover kicked off the 2025 racing season in style with an allowance win on Charles Town’s opening night card Jan. 2.

Now a six-year-old Mosler mare trained by Brown and owned and bred by Ronney & Nicole Brown, Full Moon Lover has been a virtual win machine for her connections, especially in the one-turn dash events for fillies and mares. But prior to her career debut on January 14, 2022, Full Moon Lover had not genuinely displayed much quickness in her morning workouts.

She was dismissed at 18-1 that night only to outrun her longshot status and finish second by just a neck to Nordic Dancer.

“She was 25-1 when I left the paddock that first time I ran her,” said Brown, who has already recorded six winners from 16 starters this year and sports 3,202 career victories from 18,315 runners with earnings rapidly approaching $40 million. “She really didn’t show me much in the mornings leading up to that race. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. But she ran a tremendous race first time out, and she’s been really consistent ever since.”

Full Moon Lover currently ranks fourth in career earnings among Brown trainees and is roughly $100,000 shy of his top trainee, Original Gold, a two-time Cavada heroine with a stakes named in her honor each year at the oval. Full Moon Lover finished second in each of her first three starts against maiden special weight company before graduating at that level on May 12, 2022 as the 1-5 favorite.

That victory enabled the Mosler mare to turn the corner in her career.

Immediately after earning her diploma, Full Moon Lover reeled off four consecutive allowance victories for Brown. She then finished a solid second to Alpine Moon in the Autumn Overnight Stakes for state-breds.

Full Moon Lover then was sixth when Silky Serena scored in the inaugural Blue & Gold Stakes on the tail end of the West Virginia Breeders Classics card. But she rebounded to win a pair of allowance races in November to cap a productive sophomore season.

That established something of a pattern. Full Moon Lover usually runs well in allowance company but has generally found the stakes waters a little deep. She’s winless in six tries versus stakes foes.

“She’s been really consistent,” Brown said of Full Moon Lover, who has been second seven times and third on one occasion, in addition to posting 11 tallies. “So far, she’s been able to win all of her state-bred conditions and those open allowance conditions. She hasn’t won a stakes yet, but she was second in one and been third and fourth in a couple of others.”

Oddly enough, Full Moon Lover could not duplicate her success as a four-year-old when she notched only an allowance score on July 1, 2023, and endured a rather prolonged drought before posting consecutive victories last summer on August 24 and September 12 before running second in a November 13 allowance in her seasonal finale. Six weeks later, however, she overhauled favored Stryda for a gritty score in her six-year-old debut.

“I am hoping to try her again in another stakes this spring,” Brown said. “It’s just tough to find races for her and Hopping Henry right now. Those races are tough to fill. But she’s been really good for us. She really didn’t show me much in her workouts before she ran that first time. When she ran second that first time it was a pleasant surprise, and she’s been running well for us ever since.”

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