01/07/23 | Hallandale Beach, FL – Dare To Dream Stable’s Moon Cat proved much the best breaking his maiden at Gulfstream Park in just his second career start. Moon Cat was coming off a pretty good debut where he finished 4th in an off-the-turf 1 1/16 event. In that race, Moon Cat ran pretty good but the surface change and the longer distance first time out was a bit more to chew off than he was ready for but still displayed the talent we knew he had.

We were all expecting a big jump in performance this time out as the race stayed on the turf and was a bit shorter going 7 1/2 furlongs. Under the guidance of multiple eclipse-winning jockey Irad Ortiz Jr., Moon Cat broke well and was close to the pace early on, but after the opening quarter sucked back to midpack in the full field of twelve MSW colts. When they hit the backside Ortiz had Moon Cat a little further back then anticipated and was about 8-9 lengths off the leaders. Before they approached the far turn, Ortiz asked Moon Cat for more run and he began to accelerate and make up some ground. Once they completed the second turn, Ortiz shifted Moon Cat all the way out to the eleven path where “The Cat” displayed an incredible turn of foot passing horses one by one and getting up in the final stages to out-finish another talented horse in Justin’s Legacy to garner the victory by a long neck.

What an impressive victory by Moon Cat as the son of Malibu Moon beat a very talented group of runners and took home the $42,000 winner’s share of the $70,000 purse. Congratulations to our partners on this great victory! It was a terrific training job by Chris Davis, Mynor Ortiz, Sophie Doyle, and the entire team! Also wanted to mention Chris won the other half of this MSW earlier in the card and is off to a great start at the Championship Meet! Also want to give a shout-out to Irad Ortiz Jr. who once again proved why he’s one of the best finishers in the game and one of the top jockeys in the country!

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