Malibu Moon’s Greyvitos very sharp in $400K Springboard Mile

One month after taking the Bob Hope S. (G3) at Del Mar, Greyvitos racked up his second straight stakes win with an eye-catching performance in Remington Park’s $400,000 Springboard Mile on Sunday evening.

The 2-year-old Malibu Moon colt, who was based at San Luis Rey Downs and evacuated during the tragic fire that swept through the training center, made it to Oklahoma only to draw the outside post in the field of 12 juveniles.

Hustled out of the gate under Victor Espinoza, the gray colt lost ground around the first turn, but still managed his way up to third going into the backstretch. From there, Espinoza sat until midway on the second bend, when he went three-wide again to take command and was never threatened in the stretch, winning by 2 1/4-lengths in 1:37.14.

“When you have a horse like this, with a small barn, there’s a lot of pressure,” trainer Adam Kitchingman said of his colt. “We’ll back off a little bit. I can’t imagine running until February. Now is the time to give him a rest, because in his 3-year-old year, the races are only going to get tougher.”

Greyvitos also picked up 10 points in the Road to the Kentucky Derby standings in the Springboard Mile. Owned by Triple B Farms, Greyvitos is now 2-0-1 in four starts and has earned $306,345.

Greyvitos is out of two-time graded stakes winner Snow Top Mountain and was bred by Audley Farm Equine.

Malibu Moon’s runners have earned just over $11 million this year, which is the most ever for the perennial top-10 stallion.