Magnum Moon Shines Brightly In Rebel

By Margaret Ransom

Robert and Lawana Low’s Magnum Moon earned 50 points toward making the Kentucky Derby starting gate with a 3 ½-length romp in the $900,000 Rebel Stakes (GII) at Oaklawn Park Saturday. The Todd Pletcher-trained son of Malibu Moon was ridden to his first career stakes victory by regular jockey Luis Saez and remains undefeated in three starts for career earnings of $577,800.

Magnum Moon now sits fifth on the list of Kentucky Derby hopefuls, behind Bolt D’Oro, Enticed, Bravazo and Promises Fulfilled, and owns the same amount of points as Quip.

After a clean break, Magnum Moon got good stalking position early in the 10-horse field and sat comfortably just behind the front-running Title Ready while racing wide around the first turn and up the backstretch through spits of of :23.42 and :47.15 for the first half-mile. The favored Solomini and… (more)