Page 39 - 2 March 2012

LEGENDS
LOVELY MOON
Lovely Moon faced the starter 14 times as a 2- and 3-year-old while posting three wins, a pair of seconds and two thirds. She broke her maiden in her second start as a 3-year-old and then ended her career by finishing in the top three in her last six efforts. A daughter
of Top Moon and the Lightning Bar mare Bardandy, Lovely Moon posted her lifetime best speed index of 90 over 300 yards in her last start.
Lovely Moon’s value as a broodmare had been already established before Bold Love raced, since Lovely Moon is a full sister to Sunland Fall Derby winner Go Moon.
Go Moon was campaigned through his 5-year-old year and picked up 17 wins while racing primarily in New Mexico. In addition to his Sunland Fall Derby victory, Go Moon was second in the Kansas Derby and grabbed thirds in the Bright Eyes Handicap, the Kansas Maturity and the State Fair Stakes.
Top Moon, the sire of Lovely Moon and Go Moon, has firmly established himself as a top flight sire of sires, and his daughters are also proving to produce top performers. The renowned Top Moon sons include leading sires Bugs Alive in 75 and Lady Bug’s Moon and the promising young sire Moon Lark, whose oldest foals have yet to start. (Moon Lark went on to sire the earners of more than
$10.3 million with 52 stakes winners and 66 stakes placers including Champions Spring Lark and Gold Coast Express.)
The Top Moon daughters have also come through with runners like 1980 Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Jaime Jay, who earned
over $313,000 before Colitis-X forced her retirement. Other stakes winners out of
Top Moon mares include Moon Sport, Top Bug Too, Mr Breakthru, Hi Tulsa, Cissy Moon Rocket, Arriving Bug, Oreohs, Pacific Mooner, Sure Warrior, Chick’s Moon, Oh Danish Moon Oh, Heart Snatcher, Fast Forward, Kellys Chick, Shes Gonna Go, Hojo Jac and Bold Clipper.
Lovely Moon gets a shot of Three Bars’ blood through Top Moon’s dam Rica Bar, a granddaughter of Three Bars, and Lovely Moon has a second cross to Three Bars through her dam Bardandy.
Bardandy is a daughter of the Three Bars son Lightning Bar, so Lovely Moon is bred 4x3 to Three Bars. In addition to being the dam of stakes winner Go Moon and Lovely Moon, Bardandy is also the dam of the stakes-placed Sugar Cola. Sired by Son O Sugar, Sugar Cola is the dam of stakes winner Moon Action and the stakes-placed Moon Cola. Both Moon Action and Moon Cola provide the same cross as Lovely Moon, being by Top Moon.
Lightning Bar, the sire of Bardandy,
was a remarkable horse who had his career cut short when he died after having only seven crops to race and just beginning
to get superior mares in his book. A full brother to Bardella, a top stakes mare of the early 1950s, Lightning Bar produced 148 foals, which included Champion Pana Bar, Champion Light Bar and Lightening Belle, who was a leading member of her division as a 3-year-old.
Lightning Bar showed his speed as a 2-year-old when he equaled the 2-year-old colt record for 300 yards of :17.2 and set the track record at Pomona.
In addition to his influence in running Quarter Horse breeding, Lightning Bar helped revolutionize cutting horse breed- ing through his son Doc Bar. It is nearly impossible today to find a premier cutting horse without Doc Bar present in his first three generations.
Bold Love’s triumph in the World Championship Classic further enhanced her reputation as one of the leading mares in the nation. Backed by this impres-
sive performance record, Bold Love will enter the Spencer broodmare band with Thoroughbred speed on her sire’s side and black type Quarter Horse breeding
from her female side.
Bold Moon-TB went on to sire 10 crops and a total of 98 registered American Quarter Horse foals. Of those, 66 started with 28 win- ners, two stakes winners and four stakes plac- ers. Bold Love remained his leading money earning foal, accounting for more than half of the $208,916 earned by Bold Moon foals.
Bold Love retired in January, 1982, with a record of 15-6-3 from 28 starts. She earned $126,025, won three stakes races and set three track records and one world record. She was bred shortly after her retirement, and in 1983, produced her one and only foal, the Rocket Wrangler colt Bold Loveit.
Bold Loveit remained a maiden after nine starts that were spaced out over three years.
He earned his Register of Merit and the paltry sum of $691 on the racetrack. Bold Loveit sired 21 foals in nine crops, with only four of his offspring starting on the racetrack. His leading money earner was Sheza Pretty Pearl, a winner of one race and $5,254. Sheza Pretty Pearl is
an Appendix mare out of the Thoroughbred Coraje, a daughter of Splendid Courage-TB. Coincidentally, all four of Bold Loveit’s starters were out of Thoroughbred mares. A 2001 mare, Sheza Pretty Pearl has not produced any registered Quarter Horse foals.
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