Dear
Readers’
On August 11, in Deauville France at
the Deauville-La Touques Racecourse a remarkable mare took on the boys for the second
time in eight days.
Moonlight Cloud was given time off from
racing after finishing 8th in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, and
since her return to racing on July 6th has contested three graded
races in five weeks, and folks—she won
all three. That isn’t just remarkable, it’s amazing.
The last two races were both Gr. I
events and were contested in the company of what most consider to be the stronger
colts and geldings. With only six days off between the Prix de la Porte Maillot
Gr. I, where she won for fun and the Prix du Haras de Fresnay-Le-Buffard
Jacques le Marois Gr. I where she barely held on after making the lead, this
mare must be made of iron.
Moonlight Cloud, is slender and feminine,
her stride a thing of beauty. She likes to be rated early and when asked to run
she’ll pin her ears so tight to her head, it looks like she doesn’t have any
and she keeps them pinned even after the race is over. This is one tough cookie,
and I like this mare a lot, but not against the kind of colts and geldings she
would be taking on in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.
In
closing I wanted to share an interesting fact about Deauville-La Touques
Racecourse. Built in 1862 and called the Hippodrome de la Touques, after the
Touques River, the man behind the construction was the half brother of the Emperor
Napoleon III. Charles de Morny, Duke of Morny was an important contributor to
the development of the thoroughbred industry in France.
Take care,
Shelley Riley
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