2020 Zenyatta Stakes Winner
Harvest Moon was a quick rising filly who burst onto the West Coast racing scene in 2020. She was trained by Simon Callaghan and ran in the colors of her connections after being purchased as a young horse. Her sire was the leading stallion Uncle Mo, the unbeaten 2010 champion two year old, and her dam was Qaraaba, a daughter of the great European stallion Shamardal. She carried a deep blend of American speed and European stamina.
Harvest Moon made her racing debut in June 2020 on the grass at Santa Anita, where she finished third. Her connections quickly figured out she was better on the dirt, and her career took off from there. She won her second start at Los Alamitos and then put together a flashy 4 and a quarter length win in an allowance race at Del Mar. She had clearly arrived as one of the top three year old fillies on the West Coast.
She made her stakes debut a winning one in the Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar, a Grade 3 race for three year old fillies. She kept stepping up in class, and her next big test came in the Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita. Harvest Moon powered home to win the Grade 2 race by three quarters of a length, beating older mares and stamping herself as a real contender. The win earned her a spot in the Breeders Cup Distaff at Keeneland that fall.
Harvest Moon ran in the 2020 Breeders Cup Distaff but came up short against the best older mares in the country, including the eventual winner Monomoy Girl. She continued to run after that and added more good efforts in graded company. She is remembered as a quick learning filly who came along at the right time and gave Simon Callaghan and her connections a memorable run through the 2020 racing season.
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