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Moonrush
“The horse who came from nowhere,” according to California racing historian John Lenoir, Moonrush was perhaps not quite as plebeian in origin as the title would suggest. His sire *Hunter’s Moon IV, had been a multiple stakes winner in England and France prior to his importation, and although he sired mostly hard-knocking winners of limited class during his stud career, he did sire three-time champion steeplechaser Neji and the Dixie Handicap winner Hunter’s Rock in addition to Moonrush. The dam of Moonrush, the *Pharamond II mare Bustle, was no great runner, but she was, as horsemen say, “better than an empty stall,” winning eleven of fifty starts. Bustle had produced four other foals, all winners, prior to foaling Moonrush, so there was some reason to hope for a useful if unspectacular runner from this union. Bred by movie mogul Louis B. Mayer, Moonrush was foaled in 1946 at Mayer’s California farm and was sold as an early two-year-old in January 1948 as part of the dispersal of Mayer’s Thoroughbred holdings. Among the other youngsters sold were the future stakes winners Pedigree and Duplicator, so Moonrush wasn’t in bad company. However, his pedigree was indifferent compared to many of the other youngsters, most of which were by the good sires *Beau Pere and *Alibhai, and he sold for a modest $10,500 to the partnership of Gus Luellwitz and Anita King, who placed him in the care of trainer Willie Alvarado. Moonrush took four starts to break his maiden, but by the end of his juvenile season he had won three of ten starts, including the Berkeley Stakes at Golden Gate, and had more than earned back his purchase price with season winnings of $11,230. He won three stakes and $73,600 in 1949 but was decidedly in the shadow of his fellow Mayer-bred, Pedigree. A full brother to the famous race mare Honeymoon, Pedigree was building a good reputation of his own, and he defeated Moonrush in all five of their meetings at three. Pedigree did not have the constitution of his noted sister, however, and he failed to train on as an older horse. With Pedigree essentially out of the way, the future held better things for Moonrush, but his four-year-old season was somewhat disappointing. Although he started off well by winning the Santa Catalina Handicap at Santa Anita on January 2, but the best the bay gelding could do for the rest of the year was one allowance win and two close seconds in stakes events out of his remaining ten starts. By the close of his four-year-old season, Moonrush had won eight of forty starts and accumulated $123,230, but he had yet to find his best form. He found it with a vengeance in 1951. After tuning up with a second in the Santa Catalina Handicap, Moonrush earned his first victory of the season by winning the San Pasqual Handicap on January 13. Six weeks later, he served notice that his January form had not been a flash in the pan by winning the Santa Anita Handicap over two-time champion filly Next Move, with champion filly Bewitch and the good stakes winners Great Circle, Sturdy One, Frankly, and All Blue in the beaten field. His Big ‘Cap victory was quite popular with natives of the Golden State, as he was only the second Cal-bred to have won the great race and was the first to have been conceived as well as foaled in the state. (War Knight, the 1946 Santa Anita Handicao winner, was foaled in California but had been conceived in Kentucky.) Moonrush followed up with victories in the Salinas, Bay Meadows, and Golden State handicaps, then traveled East, where he ran a good second to Bryan G. in the Aqueduct Handicap. The winner of four good stakes events that year including the Pimlico Special, Bryan G. would later earn a place in bloodstock annals by siring three-time champion filly Cicada, a member of the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame. Moonrush followed his effort in the Aqueduct with a fourth in the Sysonby Handicap but seemed to have lost his best form and returned to California. He did not win again for the remainder of the year, with his best races being thirds in the Albany and Golden Gate handicaps, and ended 1951 with a tally of five wins and four placings from seventeen starts for earnings of $221,050, leading the nation‘s handicap division in that regard. Moonrush never again reached the heights he had scaled during the first half of 1951, but he competed honorably enough at ages six and seven, winning the Bay Meadows, San Diego, and San Pasqual handicaps and placing in four more stakes events during those years while defeating such horses as two-time champion filly Two Lea. He finally retired at age eight having won eighteen of eighty-eight starts, with fifteen seconds and nine thirds, and his bankroll of $434,830 was more than enough to fund a comfortable retirement at his owners’ farm. Moonrush was never a great horse; in many ways, he was an upscale version of the tough, hard-knocking runners typical of his sire’s progeny. He wasn’t a great weight carrier; he lost far more races than he won; and the 1951 Santa Anita Handicap was the only race of national significance he ever captured. But he was honest and ran hard year after year; he helped keep California breeding in the public eye at a time when the industry was struggling to keep major owners and good stallions; and the list of horses he defeated at one time or another includes some pretty good names, many of them representing major Eastern stables such as Calumet and Alfred Vanderbilt’s Sagamore Farm. Not bad for a “horse from nowhere” -- or from anywhere else, for that matter. © 2005 by Avalyn Hunter |
