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The latest Housatonic Recommended Mating features the recently-acquired Two Punch mare Miss Charlotte, who will visit the brilliant Met Mile-G1 winner Mor Spirit at Spendthrift Farm in 2020.
An $85,000 yearling-turned $650,000 2-year-old in-training purchase, Mor Spirit broke his maiden in his second start at 2 for Bob Baffert. He then shipped to Kentucky where he ran 2nd in the Grade 2 Kentucky Jockey Club Stakes prior to returning to California to triumph in the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity in his juvenile finale, moving to the head of Bob Baffert’s list of Triple Crown hopefuls. Mor Spirit debuted as a sophomore with a win in the Grade 3 Bob Lewis, then finished 2nd in both the Grade 2 San Felipe and Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby before a midpack finish in Nyquist’s Kentucky Derby. After the Derby, Mor Spirit was put away until the Grade 1 Malibu after Christmas (in which he finished 4th behind Mind Your Biscuits and Sharp Azteca at 7 furlongs), and he then stretched back out to be 2nd to Hoppertunity in the Grade 2 San Antonio in his first start as a 4-year-old. At this point Baffert sent Mor Spirit out of town, and he ripped off three impressive victories in a row: the Essex Handicap at Oaklawn carrying top weight, the Grade 3 Steve Sexton Mile at Lone Star by 5, and then his signature victory in the Grade 1 Met Mile at Belmont where he came home 6 lengths to the good of Sharp Azteca in 1:33.71, earning a negative 7 Thorograph figure and a 117 Beyer – which was the best Beyer of 2017 at distances up to a mile, and behind only Arrogate at any distance. Mor Spirit retired to Spendthrift Farm for 2019 having been 1st or 2nd in 11 of 14 starts, for $1.6 million in earnings, and we participated in the Share the Upside program with him.
Mor Spirit will be a perfect fit for Miss Charlotte for several reasons. Although the TrueNicks rating is “only” a “C+” for the cross of Eskendereya and his sons with Mr. Prospector-line mares, the best of the seven stakes winners bred this way actually appears on Miss Charlotte’s catalog page: multiple Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed Eskenformoney is by Eskendereya and out of a Not For Love half-sister to Miss Charlotte’s dam, Petunia. Additionally, Miss Charlotte’s female family has also produced the Grade 1 winner My Trusty Cat and multiple stakes winner Somethinaboutbetty by other Storm Cat-line stallions (like Mor Spirit). And, if we needed more to recommend Mor Spirit specifically, he is out of a Dixie Union mare, and the multiple Grade 2 winner Dixie Flag (by Dixie Union’s sire Dixieland Band) is also from this female family — so there’s lots of pedigree pieces here that have already proved to blend together well.
Physically, too, this is an excellent matchup — Miss Charlotte is a strapping, strong-bodied mare with plenty of bone and substance, much like Mor Spirit, who might have just a tad more leg to him. But it’s very much a case of like-to-like, which we always like when we can get it.
Eskenformoney, by Eskendereya from the family of Miss Charlotte, wins the G3 Turnback the Alarm
Eskenformoney, by Eskendereya from the family of Miss Charlotte, wins the G3 Rampart
Mor Spirit wins the G1 Met Mile, earning a 117 Beyer Speed Figure
Mor Spirit wins the G1 Los Alamitos Futurity
Mor Spirit breezes prior to selling for $650,000 as a 2YO in-training