The last horse trainer Chelsey Moysey started in 2021 was Red Hot Mess in an allowance race for 2-year-old fillies New Year's Eve at Oaklawn.
That $120,000 allowance race was really masquerading as a stakes.
Secret Oath, winner by 8 1/4 lengths of the one-mile event, subsequently dominated newly turned 3-year-old fillies in Oaklawn's Martha Washington Stakes and Honeybee Stakes (G3) before capturing the $1.25 million Kentucky Oaks (G1) last May at Churchill Downs.
Matareya, a distant runner-up to Secret Oath in the Oaklawn allowance, developed into a multiple graded stakes winner, highlighted by the Acorn (G1) last June at Belmont Park.
“Isn't that crazy?” Moysey said during training hours Sunday morning at Oaklawn. “This is the thing. When (Red Hot Mess} ran first off her layoff at Delaware, when you looked at her form, it was Secret Oath, Nest. Just the horses that had hit the board in the two races that she had ran in, we were like 'Oh, my God.' At the time, you really didn't know who those horses were.”
Red Hot Miss, prior to finishing eighth in the Dec. 31 Oaklawn allowance race, had run against Nest in Belmont's $150,000 Tempted Stakes for 2-year-old fillies at one mile. Nest emerged as the country's top 3-year-old filly of 2022 after winning three Grade 1 races and finishing second against males in the Belmont Stakes (G1), the final leg of the Triple Crown.
A year later, Moysey is preparing another 2-year-old filly to run on New Year's Eve at Oaklawn in Fabulous Candy, who is pointing for the inaugural $150,000 Year's End Stakes. The one-mile Year's End, which evolved from the allowance race won by Secret Oath, is a major local prep for the $200,000 Martha Washington Stakes at 1 1/16 miles Jan. 28.
Fabulous Candy, like Red Hot Mess, is owned by Lewis Mathews of Bismarck, Ark., best known for campaigning millionaire multiple stakes-winning sprinter Ivan Fallunovalot. Fabulous Candy, by Twirling Candy, has won two of our career starts, including a two-turn allowance race Nov. 2 at Delaware Park. Fabulous Candy also finished fourth in her stakes debut, the White Clay Creek at one mile Oct. 14 at Delaware Park. Red Hot Mess won the 2021 White Clay Creek to give Moysey her first career stakes victory.
“Honestly, I think she has a lot more talent,” Moysey said, comparing Fabulous Candy to Red Hot Mess. “I think she's every bit of a two-turn horse. She's a little bit smaller, so has a little bit of growing up to do. That filly has a lot of heart and a lot of talent.”
As for Red Hot Mess, Moysey said a knee issue sidelined the daughter of Shackleford for more than eight months following the December allowance race. Red Hot Mess returned to win her Aug. 24 allowance comeback at Delaware Park and ran second and fourth in allowance races last month at Delaware Park and Laurel, respectively.
“We kind of shortened her back up this year and kept her that way,” Moysey said. “I know she won the stake at a mile, but I think we asked a lot of her to stretch out. I think she's definitely a much better sprinter than she is a route horse. She kind of proved that this summer and fall in the races that she ran in.”
Moysey said Red Hot Mess is being pointed for the $150,000 Poinsettia Stakes for fillies and mares at 5 ½ furlongs Dec. 17 at Oaklawn.
A former assistant under now-retired trainer Buff Bradley, Moysey recorded her first career victory in 2019 and has already set a career high this year for purse earnings ($626,134), according to Equibase, racing's official data gathering organization.
Moysey won three races at the 2021-2022 Oaklawn meeting and 13 more this year at Delaware Park to finish 11th in the standings. Moysey returns to Oaklawn with 27 horses, roughly twice as many as last season, including seven for Mathews and two for prominent Arkansas owner Frank Fletcher. Among Moysey's best horses is Chief Ron, who has bankrolled $103,385 in 11 starts this year.
“It's growing,” Moysey said of her stable. “I had around 35 this summer at one point. It kind of stayed that way, between 30 and 35, at Delaware. There's a lot of horses that stayed there, went other places and then I picked up some clients to come here. Bought some more horses at a sale. So, we do have quite a few more than last year.”
Moysey is among several up and coming female trainers with stalls at Oaklawn this season. In addition, Lindsay Schultz, who earned her first career victory at Oaklawn last year, is back with a larger stable and Rachael Keithan, a former assistant to Christophe Clement and Danny Gargan who went out on her own in 2021, is at Oaklawn for the first time. They join veterans Lynn Chleborad, the winningest trainer in Oaklawn's history with 132 victories, and Ingrid Mason, a close second with 127 wins.
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