Saturday, November 07, 2009
Leading Sire Malibu Moon picked up his seventh graded stakes winner of
2009 on Nov. 7th when his 3-year-old daughter Malibu Prayer broke
through with a win against older fillies and mares in the $150,000
Chilukki S. (G2) at Churchill Downs.
Malibu Prayer has been
knocking on the proverbial door for quite some time, finishing a second
in graded stakes to such Grade 1 winners as Rachel Alexandra and
Careless Jewel. Saturday, she claimed her well-earned first graded
triumph in the Chilukki, which marked her second consecutive stakes
win. In September, the attractive bay filly won the listed Cat Chat S.
by 6 ¾ lengths at Belmont. The Chilukki was her first try against her
elders aside from her maiden win by 13 lengths over older fillies and
mares at Aqueduct in April.
In the Chilukki, Malibu Prayer
overcame being bumped as she was heading into the far turn. She
recovered professionally and rallied three-wide to prove best down the
long Churchill stretch. Malibu Prayer hit the wire in the one-turn-mile
event a length on top, stopping the clock in 1:36.24 over a fast local
main track.
Trained by Todd Pletcher, Malibu Prayer has still
never been off the board in nine starts, improving her record to 4-3-2
with earnings of $348,526 for owner and breeder Edward Evans. She is a
Virginia-bred hailing from the stakes-winning Grand Slam mare Grand
Prayer.
Aside from having seven graded stakes winners, Malibu
Moon is A.P. Indy’s leading son at stud by stakes winners again in 2009
for the fourth consecutive year. To date, he has 15 stakes winners and
14 black-type winners, including Grade 1 winners Funny Moon and Devil
May Care.