Moonshine Mullin pulls upset in Stephen Foster

LOUISVILLE, — On a Downs After Dark card -- where the bar business might surpass that at the betting windows – who better as a hunch play than Moonshine Mullin?

And the 6-year-old horse, claimed for $40,000 last fall by trainer Randy Morse for owner Randy Patterson, indeed proved the toast of the evening, striding strongly through the Churchill Downs stretch to take the $500,000, Grade I Stephen Foster Handicap by 1-3/4 lengths over favored Will Take Charge. Departing was another neck back in third in the field of nine older horses.

It was Moonshine Mullin's fifth consecutive victory, including taking the Grade II Alysheba by a half-length over Golden Ticket, who finished fifth in the Foster. And now he will have his $100,000 in entry fees waived into the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Santa Anita in November, should his camp go that direction.

The victory validated Moonshine Mullin's Alysheba score on Kentucky Oaks Day.

"Absolutely," Morse said. "He's a good horse, and he's been training very well. He's trained better up to this race than he did the race before."

Morse had strongly considered scratching to run in the Grade III Prairie Meadows Cornhusker Handicap on June 28.

"I tend to be pretty conservative," he said. "I try to go the easiest spot possible. But after he drew the 3 post and as good as he'd trained the last week, I was pretty much sure we'd run here.

"If he never wins another race, it's been a great ride. But as good as he's doing, who knows? That's one thing about this sport, they come from everywhere."

Giving jockey Calvin Borel his first Grade I victory since he was inducted into the Hall of Fame last August, Moonshine Mullin settled into second behind 80-1 shot Jaguar Paw, taking over on the far turn. The pace was very moderate: 23.98 seconds for the first quarter-mile, 47.91 for the half and 1:12.42 for six furlongs.

The bay son of Albert the Great went his last eighth-mile in 12.73 seconds to finish 1 1/8 miles in 1:49.66, easily holding off Will Take Charge, who clinched last year 3-year-old championship by winning Churchill's Grade I Clark Handicap against older horses.

Moonshine Mullin paid $22 to win as the sixth choice.

"He's a nice horse," Borel said. "He's undefeated in his last five starts and he's getting better and better. When a horse peaks, it peaks. The other morning I worked him and he didn't really work like I thought he should have. Then I worked him again, and he was a totally different horse, like he got his feet back under him. So I rode him with a lot of confidence.

"He's a nice, nice horse. I can't believe that they give just $40,000 for him."

The D. Wayne Lukas-trained Will Take Charge was in eighth until mid-way on the far turn, He came flying but round out of ground and time under Gary Stevens, one of four Hall of Fame jockeys in the race.

"He struggled a little bit the first sixteenth of a mile," Stevens said. "The track was getting away from him a little bit. But he really got into a nice rhythm down the backside. He gave up a lot of ground around the turn, but he seemed to be happy there. He showed up today. I mean, we spotted the winner 5 pounds and he was still getting with it in the last sixteenth of a mile."

It was the first Grade I victory for Morse and Patterson, the owner never having won a Grade II before the Alysheba. Morse had told the Kansas cattleman last November that they needed to claim Moonshine Mullin when he showed up in a $40,000 optional-claiming race at Remington Park. Morse said he was hoping for a horse who could compete in high-priced claiming races at Oaklawn over the winter.

After a fourth and a third in his first two starts for his new barn, Moonshine Mullin started his win streak, the Alysheba being their first attempt at a stakes, though the horse was a stakes winner as a 3-year-old.

Asked what he was thinking through the stretch, Morse said with a laugh, "I was riding too hard to be thinking. I was riding hard the last eighth-mile. That's why I'm winded."

Said Patterson: "I still was having trouble believing it… Randy Morse deserves all the credit for picking him out and all the turning the corner."

Moonshine Mullin now is 9-4-5 in 32 starts, earning $1,014,361 with the $328,848 payday.