Malibu Moon filly impresses in Alcibiades (G1)
October 7, 2017
Malibu Moon got his 14th lifetime Grade 1 winner Friday at Keeneland when the 2-year-old filly Heavenly Love rolled to a 5 1/2-length victory in the $400,000 Alcibiades S. (G1) in her stakes debut.
Malibu Moon has 4 Grade 1 winners this year, second-most on the General Sire list, while his progeny have earn more than $8.7 million in 2017.
Heavenly Love, along with recent Chandelier S. (G1) winner Moonshine Memories will make a formidable pair in next month’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Del Mar.
Heavenly Love broke alertly from post 9 in the 1 1/16-mile Alcibiades and was just outside of her stablemate, Dancing, who set the pace early one. That duo ran one-two until just outside the quarter pole, when Heavenly Love accelerated suddenly, opening up by three lengths at the top of the stretch. The eventual winner was alone in the final furlong, with Princess Warrior rallying to finish a distant second.
The final time on a fast main track was 1:45.32.
“We had a great trip, sitting second,” said winning rider Julien Leparoux. “She exploded [around the final turn] but we still had some left. When she gets to the lead, she kinda looks around. She impressed me at Kentucky Downs. She repeated it today.”
Heavenly Love broke her maiden by five lengths over the Kentucky Downs turf on Sept. 7 and is now 2-0-1 in three starts and has earned $322,000 for her owner/breeder Debby Oxley.
Pedigree Notes from the TDN
Of her sire’s 14 Grade One winners, no fewer than 10 have been females. Heavenly Love was bred by Debby Oxley from her $300,000 Keeneland September yearling Darling My Darling, runner-up in the GI Matron S. and GI Frizette S. in 1999. Darling My Darling went on to become a Keeneland horse for the course, with victories in the 2000 Raven Run S. and the 2001 Doubledogdare S. Darling My Darling was herself a daughter Roamin Rachel, winner of Keeneland’s GII Beaumont S. in 1993 and subsequently the dam of 2004 Japanese Horse of the Year and G1 Japan Cup hero Zenno Rob Roy (Jpn).