Claiming Crown: Tennessee Moon, 11-time Winner in 2024, is Hibdon’s Seabiscuit

Bad ‘Moon’ Rising! Tennessee Moon takes 11 wins — most in America this year — into Claiming Crown Glass Slipper

Mark Hibdon video interview

Mark Hibdon, owner-trainer of Tennessee Moon, didn’t know his 4-year-old filly was North America’s winningest horse in 2024 until he came to Churchill Downs for Saturday’s $100,000 Claiming Crown Glass Slipper.

The one-mile Glass Slipper, one of eight Claiming Crown races that kick off with Race 4 Saturday, is for fillies and mares that have competed for a claiming price of $12,500 or cheaper in 2023-24.

Hibdon claimed Tennessee Moon almost exactly a year ago for $5,000 at Delta Downs in Louisiana hard by the Texas border. It has proven quite the investment with Tennessee Moon winning 12 of 16 starts, with two seconds, for Hibdon while earning $177,634.

“I didn’t realize she was the winningest horse so far this year until we got here and people were talking about it,” said Hibdon, a Texan whose current base is Delta Downs. “So that’s pretty cool, to win that many races. People ask, ‘What did you do to that filly?’ We didn’t do anything. We fed her and led her over there, and she just started running and getting good. We claimed her over at Delta and ran her in an (entry level allowance) the first time, and she ran well over there and she really liked that track.

“So we just tried to find the right races for her and putting her in there. Always try to find the easiest company I can. This probably isn’t it, but we thought we’d take a shot. We don’t ever get to run at a big track like this. This is our chance, so we’re going to take it and see what happens and hope for the best.”

Picking what he thinks are the best spots has taken Tennessee Moon and Hibdon on quite the journey. He races some at Fonner Park, so after the filly won four races in four starts for Hibdon at Delta, he took her to the Nebraska track. The result was four wins in five races, capped by Tennessee Moon’s first stakes victory in the $25,000-added Al Swihart Memorial.

“Then you run into people, and they’re going this way and that way,” Hibdon said.

Next thing you know they were in Wyoming at Energy Downs 307 Horse Racing track. Three starts resulted in a pair of stakes seconds and then victory in the $21,750-added Jack Greer Memorial.

That was follow by Arapahoe Downs in Colorado, where the Tennessee titan ripped off three wins by a combined 31 1/4 lengths, two in stakes, never trailing a step.

Hibdon called Wyoming “part of the most beautiful country that I’ve ever seen. We kind of look at it as a vacation. So we go there, and get a paid vacation.”

Colorado: “It’s amazing. Another time we felt we were on vacation. During down time, we’d run into the mountains. Drive and look at the mountains and the snow. It’s just beautiful to us. We’re from Texas, so we never get to see anything like that.”

Tennessee Moon is 6-1 in the overflow field with 12 fillies and mares in the body of the race and another four needing scratches to run. The favorite in the wide-open race is 7-2 Jubilant Joanie, who comes in off a second-place finish in a Santa Anita allowance for trainer Jeff Mullins. That 4-year-old filly has been claimed in six of her last 10 starts, including for $20,000 by Mullins.

The Claiming Crown is the first time Hibdon has really swung for the fences. But no better time to pick up the bat than with a horse with 11 wins on the year while racing over all types of surfaces.

“I try to be realistic with what I’ve got,” he said. “I claimed her for $5,000. She’s a lower-level horse, and we’ve been able to run her in some races and make a little money with her. I know she’s not Seabiscuit, but she is to us.”

Hibdon has never had a horse in the Claiming Crown, which celebrates the sport’s blue-collar horses that fill out the cards across the nation. He was making entries at Arapahoe, just jawing with some other trainers and jockey agents and asked, “What would you all do?” as far as running Tennessee Moon. “Do you think we have a chance or we’d get our head kicked in? How do I fit?’ Everybody is like, ‘Man, I’d do it.’ So I did. I talked to my wife and we prayed about it, and here we are.”

He calls the Claiming Crown amazing.

“Whoever came up with this idea, send them a fruit basket or something,” Hibdon said. “It’s amazing to have an opportunity to come over here, people coming from all over the country to see what they’ve got and see how it stacks up. It’s exciting. There’s a lot of us that don’t have the big horses to get to run in the big races. This is our big horse. Getting to go run for that kind of money, with a horse like this, what else could you ask for? That’s pretty awesome.”

Hibdon is bringing a large entourage of family members to the Claiming Crown, his first time running at horse at Churchill Downs. Normally someone else hauls his horses, “but this time my son Ronnie and I took off and did it ourselves. Just trying to enjoy every part of coming here.

“You get to watch this place on Kentucky Derby and TV and stuff. It’s a place we’ve always wanted to visit, always wanted to run. This was our chance.”

They got to town Thursday afternoon, and after they bedded Tennessee Moon down, they caught the last two races.

Churchill Downs might not have mountains, but it has the Twin Spires.

“It’s amazing,” Hibdon said. “Nothing like I thought it would be. It’s actually bigger. Once you get over to the grandstand, it’s huge. I recommend to everybody coming over here and visiting. It’s really cool.”

Wright stuff: Canadian trainer says don’t overlook his horses

Michael Wright video interview

A total of 83 different trainers entered horses for the eight Claiming Crown races at Churchill Downs, coming literally from all over the United States, with Canada also represented. One of them is Michael Wright Jr., whose main base is Woodbine near Toronto.

Wright currently trains seven horses, but three are in the Claiming Crown, all in turf races.

Wright is a second generation trainer. He has the distinction of — at age 21 in 1999 for the 1998 season — being the youngest ever to win Canada’s Sovereign Award (the equivalent of our Eclipse Awards) as outstanding trainer.

“The year I won it, I actually won 13 stakes that year and I was the leading trainer at Woodbine,” he said. “So it was quite the accomplishment, and I did it with 35 horses. Nowadays these guys have 100, 200 horses.”

Of course, what really matters is having the right horse in the right races. And Wright thinks he has an excellent chance with all three.

The 8-year-old Journeyman is the 4-1 third choice in the Emerald, behind Grade 3 Louisville Stakes winner Sugoi (2-1) and Kentucky Downs allowance winner Harrow (3-1). The Emerald, at 1 1/16 miles on turf, is for horses that ran for a claiming price of $25,000 or less in 2023-24.

Wright said he lost a nine-way shake to claim him for $25,000 early last year, then got him in a 10-way shake in Journeyman’s next start for $35,000. He points out that the Godolphin-bred gelding was cut out to be a nice horse. He’s a son of Kentucky Derby winner Animal Kingdom but more importantly is out of the terrific turf mare Tout Charmant.

“His pedigree was there, and he’s a big good-looking horse,” Wright said. “And he liked poly (synthetic surface). At Woodbine we run on synthetic, so any time you can get a horse that turf or poly, it’s a nice horse to have. He actually won the Canadian Derby (on dirt) out west when he was 3 but was disqualified. So he can run on all surfaces.”

Wright laments he’ll have only one more year to run Journeyman whom he co-owns with Angela Rutledge, before the gelding is forced into mandatory retirement at age 10.

“I feel at 9 he’s just getting into gear,” he said. “My theory is, if they’re 9-years-old and still running, chances are they’re very sound. Otherwise they’re retired at 5 or whatever.”

Perhaps Tonight, a $50,000 claim three races ago, is 0 for 7 this year but has four seconds and third, heading into the $150,000 Tiara at 1 1/16 miles on turf. The race is for fillies and mares who have competed for $25,000 or less in 2023-24.

“She’s 20-1 in the morning line,” Wright said. “I don’t believe she should be 20-1. The day I claimed her at Woodbine, she got beat by a mare called Loon Cry, who has come back to win two stakes for Christophe Clement. The day I claimed her, she got into a lot of trouble and probably should have won the race. If you look at her races at Gulfstream, she was second to two mares that both those came back to win stakes, one at Monmouth and one at Delaware. So she’s kept pretty good company and I don’t think she should be overlooked. I expecting something good from her.”

Nine-time winner Cotton — claimed by Wright four races ago for $50,000 — comes into the $150,000 Canterbury Tom Metzen Memorial off a big win a month ago in a second-level allowance at five furlongs on turf at Woodbine. Cotton is 8-1 in the overflow field, with the Canterbury for horses that have run for $25,000 or less in 2023-24.

“He’s going to get an extra half-furlong which I think will be ideal for him,” Wright said. “I like him a lot. He’s a big good-looking horse and knows how to get it done.”

Wright, not surprisingly, is a big fan on the Claiming Crown concept.

“I think it’s amazing to give these horses an opportunity, these hard-knocking claiming horses a chance to have their day,” he said. “I call this the Breeders’ Cup for claimers. It’s awesome.”

Maker poised to extend his Claiming Crown record

If it’s a Claiming Crown, that’s Mike Maker in the entries.

The Louisville-based trainer has six horses entered in Saturday’s Claiming Crown at Churchill Downs as he seeks to break his own record number of wins by getting his 23rd — if not more — in the eight-race series. No other trainer has more than four horses entered in the 26th annual Claiming Crown, created to celebrate the hard-knocking horses without whom American racing wouldn’t exist.

Maker’s six-pack would have had more horses but he couldn’t get them in under Kentucky’s regulations governing overfilled non-stakes races. No one is crying for Maker, however. He’s still loaded.

Sugoi is the 2-1 favorite in the $175,000 Emerald at 1 1/16 miles on turf. The race after Paradise Farm Corp. and David Staudacher claimed Sugoi for $50,000, the 7-year-old gelding won Churchill Downs’ Grade 3 Louisville Stakes. Since then he’s had a close second in Churchill Downs’ $175,000 Chorleywood and a pair of fifths in Colonial Downs’ Grade 1 Arlington Million and Keeneland’s Grade 3 Sycamore. The 10-race winner has earned $646,018.

“Obviously a drop in class,” Maker said. “He loves Churchill so looking forward to it.”

Other Maker horses:

Dana’s Beauty is the shortest-priced favorite in the Claiming Crown races, at 4-5 in the morning line for the $150,000 Tiara for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on grass. A 10-time winner and earner of $633,033, she was purchased by Resolute Racing at auction in April for $450,000 and sent to Maker. She’s won two stakes in four starts for her new barn, including Remington Park’s Ricks Memorial in her last start. Dana’s Beauty, a daughter of the hot young sire Not This Time, became eligible for the Claiming Crown when she ran for $25,000 last year at Presque Isle.

Maker actually did get a second horse in the Tiara, because that race drew “only” 11 horses instead of the overflow fields in the other seven Claiming Crown events. Ryan Daugherty’s 3-year-old filly Boomin’ Belle is 4-1, winning an entry-level allowance race in Indiana in her first start after being claimed for $75,000.

Flying P Stable’s On a Spree is the 3-1 second choice in the $100,000 Kent Stirling Memorial Iron Horse. The 8-year-old is a 14-time winner who has earned $428,356.

Hilarious Affair (also owned by Paradise Farms and Staudacher) also is the 3-1 second choice, in the $150,000 Canterbury Tom Metzen Memorial. He comes into the 5 1/2-furlong turf race off victory in a starter race in New York.

The 5-year-old gelding Guntown, a $750,000 yearling and $80,000 claim for Michael Hui and Phil Forte, has been racing in stakes and top allowance company heading into the $200,000 Jewel at 1 1/8 miles.

Maker prioritizes the Claiming Crown on his annual racing schedule. For instance, the Claiming Crown was a factor in claiming Sugoi, he said. “Dana’s Beauty, it just kind of worked out. Guntown, we’ve been planning on this all along. Hilarious Affair we purchased privately with this mind. On a Spree has eligibility for life” under the Iron Horse’s conditions.

Of this group, he said, “The horses are in form. Home track. Just need some racing luck.”

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