Mo Town’s Mo Stash Wins G3 Transylvania

Mo Town’s multiple stakes placed Mo Stash (3c Mo Town x Making Mark Money, by Smart Strike) registered his first career stakes victory on Friday with a win in the Grade III Transylvania Stakes at Keeneland.

Making his second start of the year in the race, Mo Stash broke quickly in the 1 1/16 mile turf race and refused to let anyone else take the lead from that point on. The colt had a length on the field early on before another runner crept closer to pour on the pressure with Mo Stash waiting until the stretch to make it clear he was the winner.

He added distance between himself and the rest of the field but Grade III winner Nagirroc cut his lead back down to a length at the line.

“I just put my hands down and he relaxed. He’s a pretty smart horse,” jockey Luis Saez said. “(Trainer) Vicki (Oliver) is doing a magnificent job with him. He’s always ready. Last time, in Tampa, he ran a great race (when second in the Columbia Stakes). Today he was much better. At the top of the turn he just kept going. He loves the turf, he loves to run here on this turf course and, like I said, Vicki did a great job.”

Bred by Rhineshire Farm, Mo Stash races for BBN Racing and is trained by Victoria Oliver. The earner of nearly $400,000, Mo Stash has two other stakes placings to his name and was a close fourth in last year’s Grade I Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

“It’s still going to be a question mark about how far he will go, but today it looked like he just kept going and could go another sixteenth,” Oliver said. That might just be his running style. There’s a lot of races out there between a mile, mile-and-an-eighth. We’ll just have to pick them out as we go.”

Mo Stash was a $130,000 purchase from Summerfield by his racing owner at the 2021 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and broke his maiden on debut last August at Ellis Park.

Mo Stash is one of five winners from five runners out of Making Mark Money, who also produced Grade II placed Hidden Stash and Cupid’s two-time winner Cupid’s Strike. Making Mark Money is one of two stakes producers out of Kapsiki with a half-sister producing multiple Grade II placed Majestic Ruler.

This family also includes Grade I winners Sky Mesa, Matareya, and Maxfield.

Making Mark Money has a yearling Practical Joke colt to come.

Mo Stash is the first graded stakes winner for Mo Town, who has sired six stakes performers and three stakes winners from his 70 Northern Hemisphere foaled runners.