Malibu Moonshine takes the Gin Talking, her second stakes win (Maryland Jockey Club)
Promising Maiden Winner Kool Kathmandu Targets $100K Jimmy Winkfield
Stone Creator Back to Barn After Six-Month Layoff
NYRA Press Office
OZONE PARK, N.Y.— Happy Face Racing Stable’s undefeated Maryland-bred Malibu Moonshine will look to keep her perfect record intact in Saturday’s $100,000 Ruthless, a seven-furlong sprint for sophomore fillies, at Aqueduct Racetrack.
Trained by Charlton Baker, the daughter of Bourbon Courage arrives from a last-to-first score in the seven-furlong Gin Talking on December 30 at Laurel Park where she showed an impressive turn of foot to claim her second stakes victory by 1 3/4 lengths over Give Me Kisses. The third-place finisher in that event, Stonewall Star, was an emphatic 6 1/4-length winner of the Franklin Square against New York-breds in her next outing on January 22. Malibu Moonshine earned a 66 Beyer Speed Figure for her winning effort.
“She’s got that turn of foot – she doesn’t break sharp and she takes a few strides to get herself going, but she makes a nice run,” said Baker. “She has the will to win. I think she might be OK at a mile too, but seven-eighths is good for her.”
Malibu Moonshine’s other two victories came in a debut maiden score in September at Pimlico Race Course and her first stakes conquest in the Maryland Juvenile Fillies on December 3 at Laurel, both coming in similar off-the-pace fashion. She made her final preparations for the Ruthless Sunday, covering five furlongs in 1:03.33 over Belmont Park’s dirt training track.
“She’s got a lot of class to her and she breezed pretty good this morning,” said Baker. “She’s nice and it seems like nothing bothers her. Everything is looking good.”
Happy Face Racing Stable also campaigns promising maiden winner Kool Kathmandu, who will target the $100,000 Jimmy Winkfield, a six-furlong test for sophomores, on February 11 at the Big A.
The grey son of Frosted was a pacesetting winner at second asking in a six-furlong maiden on December 16 here, leading at every point of call before widening his margins down the stretch and winning in-hand by 5 1/2 lengths.
“He’s OK and he’s doing good,” said Baker. “We tried to run him in the ‘a-other-than’ the other day and it didn’t fill, so we’ll try the stake. Then we’ll give him a little break for the rest of the winter.”
The $25,000 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale purchase first began his conditioning with Baker last spring, but did not make his debut until a third-place effort in November at Aqueduct. Baker said Kool Kathmandu has been worth the wait.
“He’s always shown potential and he got to me early, but it just took him a while to get going,” Baker said. “We had to geld him and he needed to mature.”
Kool Kathmandu will look to add to a solid stakes-winning ledger of his immediate family. His second dam, Katarica Disco, produced seven six-figure earners and three stakes winners, including his dam, Fat Kat, and multiple stakes winners Disco Ebo and Smooth B.
Baker welcomed dual stakes-placed Stone Creator back to his barn last month after six months away from the work tab. A New York homebred for Roddy Valente, Stone Creator flashed her ability early last year with a debut maiden win in January that was followed by runner-up efforts against fellow state-breds in the Maddie May and East View, all at the Big A.
The 4-year-old daughter of Creative Cause posted another runner-up effort in allowance company before finishing an even fifth in her last start before her respite in May at Belmont. Baker said Stone Creator has relished her time away from the races.
“She’s getting close and is a few works away from running,” Baker said. “She showed talent early on and then she kind of fell apart a little and got nervous. She came back this year and she’s a lot quieter, so that’s a good thing. I think after her first race she got hyper and she was kind of throwing the race being that way. We’ll bring her back in an allowance and she what she can do.”
Out of the Empire Maker mare Stone Maker, a half-sister to Valente’s multiple graded stakes-winning New York stallion Bustin Stones, Stone Creator has banked $97,700 through a lifetime record of 5-1-3-0.
