Money’soncharlotte Steps Up in Silverbulletday

Owners George and Lori Hall and their trainer Kelly Breen know how to be successful at Fair Grounds Race Course and when shipping around the country, for that matter.  The connections of 2011 Louisiana Derby winner Pants on Fire and Belmont Stakes winner Ruler on Ice that same year have made a good living from sending their talented stock around the nation over the last few years while winning races at an admirable rate – 21%, to be exact, in 2014. 

On Saturday, the multiple graded stakes-winning owners and their adept conditioner will start Money’soncharlotte in the Listed $125,000 Silverbulletday Stakes.  Any other year, the daughter of Mizzen Mast with two consecutive wins – including one in a two-turn stakes – would be considered one of the favorites for the one-mile and 70-yard stakes, but in 2015 the first of the three major Fair Grounds features for fillies has drawn an exceptionally deep and promising field. 

“It looks like it’s going to be a pretty salty spot,” Breen said.  “My filly is doing okay, though.  She’s training well and came out of her last work great.”

Breen, who can often be seen on race day in his well-tailored suit and signature hat with iPad in-hand, has been integral to the success of the Halls in their ascension – including training their charges to a pair of Breeders’ Cup thirds.  Money’soncharlotte is typical of his program.  A modestly bred but well built athlete, she has shown excellent speed that carries over a distance of ground and her two wins have been one-sided affairs.

On Oct. 23, in Money’soncharlotte’s second start after a disastrous Oct. 4 Keeneland debut, she won by nearly four lengths over two next-out winners in a one-turn mile maiden at Belmont Park.  Next out, five weeks later, she took the $75,000 Hut Hut Stakes at a two-turn mile with ease by nearly three lengths at Gulfstream Park West.  “She doesn’t need the lead,” Breen said.  “We are bringing her because it was the perfect spot to set her up for a stakes at Gulfstream in February and Gulfstream didn’t have anything for her.”  On Feb. 21, the Hallandale Beach establishment has the Grade II $200,000 Davona Dale Stakes at a one-turn mile.

STIDHAM TACKLES KRANTZ WITH TRIO

Veteran conditioner Mike Stidham is a trainer who has proven able to develop basically any kind of runner and has done such in the last calendar year with stakes winners such as synthetic sprinter Pirate’s Trove, handicap dirt horse Ground Transport and Grade I-placed multi-surface juvenile filly Her Emmynency.  Still, one division that seems to be flush with talent above all others in his barn in 2015 is that of routing turf fillies and mares.  Whether by chance or sheer fortune, such fillies/mares as Grade I-placed Stellaris, multiple graded stakes winner Istanford and graded stakes-placed Every Way headline his adept operation. 

The last mentioned leads a trio of grass-loving distaffers the 57-year-old native of Neptune, New Jersey has entered in the $60,000 Marie G. Krantz Memorial Stakes on Saturday’s Road to the Derby Kickoff Day Presented by Hotel Monteleone.  A 5-year-old daughter of City Zip owned by Haynes Stable et al, Every Way has been a picture of consistency in turf stakes company, but unfortunately has yet to claim one of her own.  In her last six grass stakes tries – including four graded events – Every Way has finished second three times, while also managing a game fourth in the Grade III $200,000 Modesty Handicap at Arlington International Racecourse in July, beaten only a half-length.  Saturday’s return to the races for the Pin Oak Stud-bred mare will be the first since a lackluster fifth on Aug. 31 over Del Mar’s then-synthetic Polytrack surface that she reportedly detested. Speaking of Pin Oak Stud, Josephine Abercrombie’s well-respected establishment bred and owns another of Stidham’s Krantz Memorial entrants – Hung the Moon.  Making her first start for Stidham on Saturday, the 5-year-old daughter of Malibu Moon won the $50,000 Wild Rose Stakes last May on dirt for previous trainer Donnie K. Von Hemel and has never started on the grass.  Fourth last out in the $100,000 She’s All In Handicap over a muddy and sealed surface at Remington Park, she has worked three times at Fair Grounds for Stidham, including a smart half-mile move on Jan 5 in :48.20.  As far the four-time (in 16 starts) winner’s turf prospective, it is worth noting that the one Malibu Moon filly to win over the Fair Grounds grass this season (Flor de la Luna) was also out of a Storm Cat-line mare.

Unlike Every Way who poses the layoff question and Hung the Moon’s surface quandary, Twin Creeks Racing Stable’s Notte d’Oro has neither issue.  A lightly raced daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, she exits a strong Fair Grounds turf allowance victory on Dec. 18 in which she defeated snappy next-out winner Compelling Case by three-quarters of a length and closed into a lugubrious pace from four lengths astern.  A winner of half of her six races, she scuttled her last sixteenth of a mile in less than six seconds after being forced four-wide at the quarter-pole.  The Krantz Memorial will be the 4-year-old homebred’s first chance to display her class against stakes company.

Source: Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots