Malibu Moon's racing career
 

Based on his racing career, Orb's sire Malibu Moon didn't achieve very much on the track:

Here are Malibu Moon's pp's:

http://www.drf.com/sites/default/fil...ibu%20Moon.pdf

However, sons of A. P. Indy simply are never as good going short. Malibu Moon ran two nice figures at distances of 4.5 furlongs and 5 furlongs in his only two career starts, and that demonstrates special potential.

No offspring of A. P. Indy has ever won a race at Saratoga at the distances of six furlongs or less. Dreaming of Julia (out of the sensationally fast Rick Violette front-running sprinter Dream Rush) had a chance to break that last season at Saratoga... but Pletcher debuted the A. P. Indy daughter at 6.5 furlongs instead of 6 furlongs...and the streak still lives on.

By the way, here are the lifetime past performances of the 2nd and 3rd place finishers in Malibu Moon's lone career win:

* Family Hero, 2nd to Malibu Moon in his career debut, ended up with a 2-for-30 lifetime record. He was trounced in cheap claiming races at the end:

http://www.drf.com/sites/default/fil...ily%20Hero.pdf


* Terror To Go, 3rd to Malibu Moon in his career debut, ran three abysmal races and was toast:

http://www.drf.com/sites/default/fil...%20To%20Go.pdf


Malibu Moon might be the best stallion in thoroughbred racing right now ... but his racing career is a case of what might have been... primarily because of who his sire was. For a son of A. P. Indy, he sure did have proven sprint speed.

Here's an amusing fact.

Malibu Moon and Fusaichi Pegasus were both foaled in 1997.

Malibu Moon's stud fee his first year was $3,000

Fu Peg's stud fee his first year was $150,000

Right now, Malibu Moon stands for $70,000 and Fu Peg stands for just $7,500

Next year Malibu Moon will be 100k and Fu Peg will be 5k.

Despite the incredible amount of success Malibu Moon has had to come from nothing (he spent the first 3 years of his stallion career standing at 3K) I was surprised to see that he's still only sired two different millionaires ... Orb and Life At Ten.

Declan's Moon did win a 2yo championship, but only made it to 705k in earnings.

Consider Bernardini's first books vs. Malibu Moon's.. Its rare these types that never had success on the track end up being useful. Its rare the ones that were successful on the track are successful stallions as well. There was this guy who used to post here named rollitomasi, he used to say "you never know", he was right

The great Rollo Tomasi.

i'm glad that the pons family and country life gave him a shot. he's another on the scale of danzig, well bred but not enough races to really say 'career'. woody stephens really pushed for danzig to get a chance, and luckily malibu moon had a pedigree to make taking a chance worthwhile as well.

Malibu Moon actually had two fractured sesamoids when he was 6 months old. They didn't think he would ever make it to the races. The vet told them he needed 8 months of stall rest. After the 8 months were up, he looked like a dwarf compared to the other yearlings. The other yearlings had been running around for 8 months and he had been stuck in a stall. He was tiny. They had practically no hope for him. They thought he was probably just going to be a pony.

Even if they were going to make a pony out of him, he still needed to be broken. After they broke him and he trained a little bit, he grew a lot and he started to look pretty good. His ankles still did not look perfect but they looked much better.

Hughes ended up sending him to Mel Stute because he thought most other trainers would srew around with the horse forever and he'd never make it to the races. He figured that Mel would just go on with the horse and he would either make it or he wouldn't. He ended up running 2nd in his debut. I believe it was in May of his 2 year old year. He came back a few weeks later and won but he fractured his knee in the race and that was the end of his racing career.

Hughes wanted to make him a sire but he didn't know where to send the horse. Ron Ellis was actually the one who suggested they go to Maryland. The rest is history. By the way, Ellis received a lifetime breeding to Malibu Moon for setting the whole thing up in Maryland. That lifetime breeding didn't look all that lucrative at the time but it sure turned out to be.

Wayne Hughes paid a fortune for Malibu Moon's broodmare. She was a grade I winner. He paid around $1.5 million or $2 million. Then he bred her to AP Indy. He was all excited about the baby (Malibu Moon) and he breaks both sesamoids. It's a crazy story. It shows you all the ups and downs in racing. Who would have though that the baby with the broken sesamoids would end up being one of the best sires in the country.

Interesting stuff, CL and RP. Thanks for posting.

--Dunbar

he suffered the injury when his dam stepped on him.

Mel Stute also trained the most successful Malibu Moon offspring from his first crop, Perfect Moon.

Here are Perfect Moon's past performances: http://www1.drf.com/row/pps/perfectmoon.pdf

Mel Stute ran him in three different 2 furlong races to start his career! Gotta love that.

Of course, Malibu Moon's stallion career really got going with a very strong second crop led by two-year-old champion Declan's Moon.