A cut back in distance from the two-turn, 1 1/8-mile Fayette Stakes last month at Keeneland to the one-turn Cherokee Mile on Sunday at Churchill Downs benefitted both Moonlight and Dragoon Guard – it just benefitted Moonlight a little more.
An overlay at odds of 5-1, mainly because Dragoon Guard went off an underlaid 6-5, Moonlight made a sustained three-furlong bid under Jose Ortiz, ran down Dragoon Guard in the final furlong, and drew away to a 1 1/2-length victory in the $249,835 Cherokee Mile, the featured race on closing day of Churchill’s fall meeting.
Three-quarters of a length separated the two grays in the Fayette, in which Moonlight ran fifth, Dragoon Guard seventh. Both horses can get a shorter two-turn route under the right circumstances, but each seems better suited to a mile.
Dragoon Guard has speed at either trip and went to the front Sunday after breaking from post 11 under Irad Ortiz. Unchallenged on the engine, Dragoon Guard put up splits of 22.98 and 45.29, fast but manageable, as Moonlight crept from 11th at the first call to eighth at the half-mile pole.
Dragoon Guard put his pace rivals to sleep in upper stretch, but even as he opened a lead, Moonlight had room to operate and all the momentum. The only horse making a run, Moonlight comfortably collared Dragoon Guard at the sixteenth pole on the way to his first stakes victory in his 18th start.
This Is Uscar, who chased the pace, held third but finished 2 1/2 lengths in arrears of Dragoon Guard. Moonlight clocked 1:34.41 over a fast track and paid $15.16.
Chris Block has trained Moonlight through the second half of his career to date, and Moonlight campaigns for the Town and Country Stable. Moonlight hit a peak this past May clearing his second allowance condition in another Churchill one-turn mile and has continued to progress since that start. Bred by Peter Blum Thoroughbreds, Moonlight is by Audible out of Sundown, by Tapit, and the colt glowed brightly on Churchill’s last day of racing in 2025.
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