Moody Woman wins an allowance optional claimer March 24 at Laurel (Maryland Jockey Club)
Maryland Jockey Club Press Release
LAUREL, Md.— Robert James McGee’s 4-year-old filly Moody Woman, third at odds of 59-1 in the Barbara Fritchie (G3) two starts back, will continue the chase for her first career stakes victory in the $100,000 Primonetta.
Trained by Marilyn McMullen for her 88-year-old father, Moody Woman has already raced four times this year with three thirds and a last-out optional claiming allowance victory sprinting seven furlongs over a sloppy and sealed track March 24.
“She moves up in the mud. She runs well on a wet track, and it was a good pace for her to run at. She’s doing well,” McMullen said. “She’s developed into what looks like her 4-year-old year will hopefully as good or better as last year.”
Moody Woman enjoyed a career year in her second season of 2022, going 3-2-3 from 11 starts with $162,430 in purse earnings. The daughter of Gormley has been a model of consistency, finishing worse than third only three times in 21 races with a bankroll of over $300,000.
“She’s been a nice claim,” said McMullen, who got Moody Woman for $16,000 out of a runner-up finish in her fourth start in the fall of 2021. “I’ve been looking for another one, but I haven’t found it.”
Watch Moody Woman’s last-out victory:
Moody Woman ran in four stakes last year, finishing third in the Weather Vane, fourth in the Safely Kept and sixth in the Wide Country at Laurel and fourth behind multiple graded-stakes winning millionaire Frank’s Rockette in the Pink Ribbon at Charles Town.
“Oh boy, [winning a stakes] would be wonderful for her,” McMullen said. “She has been in some tough spots and she ran as a 3-year-old against some nice horses. At Charles Town she ran against the older mares there and that was a great race.”
The seven-furlong Fritchie was Moody Woman’s lone try against graded company, finishing behind multiple stakes winners Swayin To and Fro and Fillie d’Esprit, beaten a total of two lengths. Fille d’Esprit was a three-time Maryland-bred champion in 2022, including Horse of the Year.
“I don’t move her around much. I just keep her mainly at Laurel, so [running in the Fritchie] was a matter of who was going to ship in for it. That made kind of a difference to me,” McMullen said. “ There were some horses that were nominated that didn’t end up coming so I was a little more confident that way, but when I looked at the tote board, she was [59] to 1 and I went, ‘Oh my gosh.’ The public thought I was in the wrong spot, but I liked the way she was training into it for sure.”
Moody Woman, rated at 5-1 on the morning line, will break from Post 3 with Carlos Lopez up.
“When you go longer you get the speed that gets away from you, but she has a good kick at three-quarters and I think she’ll run well at that distance,” McMullen said. “She’s training well and we’re looking forward to running her.”
The field of six includes a trio of John Robb-trained stablemates – Fuhgedddaboudit, Princess Kokachin and Street Lute. No Guts No Glory Farm’s Fuhgeddaboutdit (8-1), 4, has faced stakes company once previously, finishing fourth in the Lewes last summer at Delaware Park, but comes in riding a three-race win streak sprinting 5 ½ and six furlongs at Laurel, the most recent March 12.
Unraced since Feb. 24, Eric Rizer’s 5-year-old homebred mare Princess Kokachin is the 5-2 morning-line favorite, having run second behind Response Time in back-to-back allowances at Laurel. Fourth to Kaylasaurus in last year’s Primonetta, she became a stakes winner with her front-running 5 ½-length score in the 2021 Politely, also six furlongs at Laurel.
Lucky 7 Stables’ Street Lute (4-1) is the most accomplished of her stablemates with 10 wins, eight in stakes, and $634,380 in purses earned. Five of her stakes wins have come at Laurel, won in succession between November 2020 and February 2021. Third in last year’s Primonetta, she returned from a seven-month absence to be fifth in a 5 ½-furlong optional claiming allowance Feb. 4 and was second by a half-length in the seven-furlong Conniver March 18.
Completing the field are Hnr Nothhaft Horse Racing’s Prodigy Doll (7-2), winner of the 2021 Cheryl S. White Memorial at Mahoning Valley who this year has won an optional claiming allowance and run fifth in the Fritchie at Laurel and finished second in the March 11 Correction at Aqueduct, and Tee N Jay Stable’s Oxana (3-1), second in the Shine Again at Pimlico prior to a victory in the Roamin Rachel at Parx last fall.
The Primonetta is named for the champion handicap mare of 1962 that won or placed in 21 of 25 career starts including the Alabama, Spinster and Delaware Oaks. Her victory in the 1960 Marguerite at Pimlico made her the first stakes-winning daughter of Hall of Famer Swaps. A full sister to champion Chateaugay, she was named Broodmare of the Year in 1978. She died at age 35 at Darby Dan Farm in Ohio in January 1993.
