Piece of the Moon - by Alysse Jacobs

While at times the SIM chat room can be a place of burden, at other times it is where some of the most important decisions in the game are made.  Some of these decisions alter the course of an owner, or in this case – three owners, careers forever.

Hall of Fame trainer Jon Xett had the great mare Fading Star in his barn.  Fading Star ended her career with 12 wins and three seconds from 15 starts.  Among her victories were nine Grade 1 wins, including a win over males in the Pacific Classic.  However the Breeders’ Cup Distaff eluded her, as she finished second in both attempts at the race.  Still, she would retire a two-time Simmy Award winner and one of the most accomplished mares of all time.  Now she only had to prove herself in the breeding shed.

This brings us back to the chat room.  Xett was there chatting with Steward Emily Shields and up-and-coming trainer Brianna McKenzie.  As usual, Xett was in a generous mood, so Shields decided to test her luck and inquire about obtaining a foal from Fading Star – a request to which Xett agreed.

Jokingly, McKenzie asked Xett if he would give her a piece of the moon.  Following her lighthearted request, she suggested Shields’ foal out of Fading Star be by McKenzie’s own shocking winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic Five Circles.  Much to her surprise, Shields thought that Five Circles would be an excellent mate for Fading Star.  In Year 10, Fading Star had her date with Five Circles and a large dark bay filly was born and adequately named Piece of the Moon with all three credited as her breeders.

Under the guidance of Xett, “Piece” made her first start Week 6 of Year 11 at Oceanside Racetrack.  Despite her pedigree’s suggestion that she would prefer more than the 7 furlongs she was given to work with, the filly completely overpowered her competition, winning by 12 commanding lengths.  Off such a facile victory, the filly had to go into stakes competition, where again she devoured her opponents winning the Grade 2 Oak Leaf Stakes by 8 ½ lengths.  She closed her two-year-old season by shipping to New York to see what that circuit could offer her in terms of competition.  The answer wasn’t much, as she strolled to a six-length victory in the Frizette Stakes.

As a three-year-old, Piece started the year off in the Ashland Stakes in Kentucky.  It was her first attempt at a Grade 1 and likewise the race came up tougher than anything Piece had yet to face.  But McKenzie was confident enough to make a bet with Hall of Fame trainer Robin Tan that not only would the filly win, but she would do so by at least three lengths.  She won by over five and McKenzie won a foal from Tan’s broodmare band.

By then it had become clear that she was leaps above her peers.  With the Kentucky Derby looming, Xett had to consider the options for the filly.  She had never faced the males, but the fillies weren’t making her work.  Her pedigree also suggested that the 1 ¼ mile distance of the Derby would be ideal and at a strapping 17 hands size against the boys would not be a problem.  Finally he made up his mind and entered his big filly against the colts.

Favored in the race was Storm A Fortress, trained by Tan.  The burly dark bay colt won four of his five starts at two, all of which were stakes races.  His only loss was a narrow defeat in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile to fellow Derby contender Midnightconfession.  But Storm A Fortress would redeem himself in his Derby prep, winning the Fountain of Youth Stakes by an astonishing 16 lengths.  Tan had him primed for the Derby, and with the two-year-old champion as well as distance-loving The Edge of Night in the race, Piece of the Moon was in for the toughest challenge of her career.

Sent off at odds of 12-1, Piece broke well and was held behind horses in the early goings of the Derby.  With Storm A Fortress hung wide and Midnightconfession and The Edge of Night at the back of the pack, the filly was left in the middle to wait for an opening.  When it did open for her, she charged right through it.  She overtook Storm A Fortress when he found the lead in the stretch.  The Edge of Night was coming at her with a closing rush, but in a strong drive she held him off and hit the wire first, 1 ¼ lengths clear of The Edge of Night.  She became only the second filly in SIM history to win the Run for the Roses.

When the filly ran back the following week in the Preakness she came with a new found respect.  She was no longer the girl just beating up on other girls, she beat up on boys, too.  But having finished so close in the Derby, The Edge of Night and Storm A Fortress weren’t ready to give up on the prospect of winning an American Classic.  However, Xett did not really want to run her back but felt obligated.  His instinct was right.  Exhausted from never having had to exert so much effort in a race, Piece of the Moon lacked a punch in the stretch and tired to third, with The Edge of Night and Storm A Fortress finishing ahead of her, respectively.

Xett allowed the filly to pass on the Belmont Stakes and rest for a summer and fall campaign.  When she came back in the Alabama Stakes the competition was new, but not yet afraid.  Among the entrants were Dethroned, recent winner of the Mother Goose Stakes, and Enduring Faith, a filly who had beaten colts earlier in the year and won the Black Eyed Susan in her last start.  Piece stalked Enduring Faith, who was on the lead.  When she went through on the rail to pass that one, Enduring Faith rerallied as Dethroned was closing fast.  But Piece was able to hold on by 1 ¾ lengths, the closest margin of her career against fillies.

There would be one last race in Piece of the Moon’s career.  She would attempt to avenge her mother and capture the race that twice eluded her – the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.  Xett had no fewer than three gifted fillies to start in the race, including Piece, and those two stablemates looked to be the star’s greatest competition.  Elusive By Design was an outstanding four-year-old with only one loss to her career and was coming off a victory in the Grade 1 Spinster Stakes.  Girldressedinblack was a $3 million yearling purchase, a stakes winner and was coming off a narrow defeat in the Gazelle Stakes.  In order to do what her dam could not, Piece would have to work for the win.

While her two stablemates dueled early on, Piece of the Moon was relaxed midpack.  When Elusive By Design stopped, Piece of the Moon ran up to take her place and hooked Girldressedinblack on the turn.  Girldressedinblack battled back.  Piece was looking at suffering the same fate as her dam, but dug in and would not be denied.  She hit the wire a nose in front.  Her victory there and in the Derby earned her Simmy Three-Year-Old Filly honors and she retired a champion.

Piece of the Moon experienced an eventful second career as a broodmare.  Not due to any complications, however, but due to the arrangement set by Xett, Shields and McKenzie for how she would be shared upon completion of her racing career in favor of the spirit of the game.  The first foal was bred by Shields and was a bay colt by Unsounded named Unheard Of.  Racing under Xett’s care, the colt had a brief but successful career.  But what he accomplished as a sire is what he is best known for.  In his first crop as stud, he produced a colt named End Result who would then go on to sire the legendary End of the Line.  This alone would have solidified Piece of the Moon’s impact on the breed, but she was not done.

Finally McKenzie would get her hands on Piece of the Moon as she bred her second foal.  After meeting with former Derby rival Midnightconfession, Piece produced a filly named Piece of the Dream.  Like her mother, Piece of the Dream managed to capture the Steward’s Cup Distaff.  But she also tried something different and won on turf as well as on the main track.

Shields bred the mare again, this time to champion Worth Fighting For.  The filly was named A Hint of Light and raced for Xett.  She hit the ground running, breaking her maiden at first asking going only 5 furlongs.  She was also capable of carrying her speed over a route of ground.  As a broodmare, she produced Steward’s Cup Classic winner Looking For Light.

The mare again returned to McKenzie’s barn to be bred.  This time McKenzie would send Piece to her own super stallion Loki Dynasty.  This mating resulted in a filly named Part of My Heart who was capable of crushing opponents in her first start as a two-year-old going 7 furlongs as well as winning the Grade 1 Personal Ensign Handicap held at 1 ¼ miles as a four-year-old.

Xett bred the next foal from the mare and selected the new and unproven Ghostzapper as her mate.  He was attempting to replicate his mare Awesome Dancer, by Ghostzapper’s sire Awesome Again.  What he got was a colt from the first crop of the newest sire sensation with some added quickness to the Piece of the Moon line.  The colt, named Out of Kindness, was able to win at distances of a mile to a mile and a quarter and retired with three Grade 1 victories to his name.

Again, Shields was allowed to breed the mare and this time she handed the reins for training over to McKenzie.  The mare had been bred to Stewards’ Cup Classic winner Chinese Bandit and produced a handsome colt named Life Worth Living.  He lived just that.  Although he was not the most impressive two-year-old, that quickly changed as the distances increased and the colt matured.  McKenzie guided him to a victory in the Canadian Triple Crown and then kept him in training at four and five where he continued to pick up Grade 1 victories before starting his career at stud.

Piece’s seventh foal ended up being bred by none of her three breeders.  More in the spirit of sharing, McKenzie traded her turn for this Piece foal with SIM supertrainer Eric Nalbone.  Under Nalbone’s management, Piece found herself visiting the court of his star stallion Saga.  While racing she accomplished something neither her mother nor her siblings had yet to accomplish – she won the Stewards’ Cup Juvenile Fillies.

When Xett was again presented with the opportunity to breed the mare, he decided to do something completely out of the box and breed her with the mind to race the foal on grass.  To accomplish this, Xett used his own outstanding turf horse Feature Attraction who failed to reproduce his turf form on the dirt.  The resulting filly named Peace Of Mind suffered the same fate.  Unplaced in two dirt efforts, she immediately broke her maiden at first asking on turf and has turned into a stakes winner on the surface.

What would turn out to be Piece’s last colt born was bred by Shields and given to Xett to train.  The colt by Fog City was named Piece Of History and is attempting to become just that.  A winner of two races, including a stakes, in five starts with the other three races being runner up finishes, Piece Of History is attempting to replicate his dam’s feat of Derby glory.

McKenzie is the owner and breeder of the mare’s final foal, as Piece of the Moon was pensioned at age 13 following the birth of this filly due to declining fertility.  Salute The Sky, a petite version of her mother by California, is currently an unraced two-year-old schedule for her debut shortly.

So with her final foal’s career just beginning, Piece of the Moon quietly grazes in a field at McKenzie’s Vishtaspa Stables in Florida.  She’s now an old pensioner living her life out peacefully, just like any other senior horse.  But from time to time she will still strike a pose.  She lifts her head and sniffs the warm Floridian air, and for a moment it is as if she is again standing in the winner’s circle with a blanket of roses draped across her broad shoulders waiting to be photographed following a gallant victory.