Classy Moon out to justify weighty price tag at Carlisle on Tuesday

It took £220,000 to prise the sought-after Classy Moon from the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale and he is ready to make his debut a month and a half later in the opening race at Carlisle’s Tuesday evening meeting.

The offering from Tom Whitehead’s Powerstown Stud had caught the eye of many at Doncaster, as an American-bred prospect by speedy Spendthrift stallion Malibu Moon.

His dam, Contentious, was Group 3-placed and Classy Moon is also a half-brother to the dam of Kessaar, the Mill Reef-winning two-year-old.

His price, which would have equalled the top lot from the 2018 sale, was the third most expensive overall. The leader of the event, the £450,000 Siyouni filly Al Raya, was only just pipped on her debut at Nottingham last week.

Karl Burke, who signed the docket and trains Classy Moon, had bought his champion filly Quiet Reflection at the same sale four years earlier.

The newcomer is now in the colours of Carl Waters and takes on eight rivals in the five-furlong Join Racing TV Now Maiden Stakes.

Among some precocious rivals on paper are Heavens Open, a Cheveley Park Pivotal homebred sent to Richard Fahey whose siblings include the capable Godolphin recruit Van Der Decken.

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