While the trainers of top North American 3-year-olds are for the most part making a decision as to whether to train up to the Breeders’ Cup or get a prep race in against their elders, the Argentine Classic season kicked off on September 6 at Palermo with the Gran Premio Polla de Potrillos (Argentine Two Thousand Guineas, ARG-G1) and Gran Premio Polla de Potrancas (Argentine One Thousand Guineas, ARG-G1), both over 1600 meters. The latter race was the first test of her 3-year-old season for multiple Group 1 winner and likely Argentine champion 2-year-old filly Charm (see “Mares on Monday: A Charming Contender for a Pellegrini Award,” June 1, 2025), who came into the Polla de Potrancas off a June 28 win in the Gran Premio Estrellas Juvenile Fillies (ARG-G1). She ran well but ended up in second behind undefeated Moon Frank, who won her second straight Group stakes race at 3 after taking the Premio General Luis Maria Campos (ARG-G2) over the same track and distance on August 2.
Bred and owned by Haras Gran Muñeca, Moon Frank is from the first crop of the farm’s home stallion, Gidu, an Irish-bred import who did his racing in the United States before being sent on to Argentina. Gidu had enough ability to win two restricted grass stakes races and to place twice at the Grade 3 level, but his primary attraction was his pedigree. He is sired by the great European champion Frankel, who has been following in the hoof prints of his sire Galileo and his grandsire Sadler’s Wells in continuing this branch of the Northern Dancer sire line, and is out of Manerbe, a winning daughter of Unbridled’s Song from a deep Claiborne Farm family, that of Courtesy. His results so far have been promising. Currently third on the Argentine first-crop sire list (his foals of 2023 will not actually begin racing until the spring of 2026), he has sired four Group winners from 22 starters.
Moon Frank is the fifth foal and fourth winner produced from 2015 Premio La Mission (ARG-G2) winner Moon Sale, a daughter of 2000 Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires (ARG-G1) winner Not for Sale. Sired by the stakes-winning Caro horse Parade Marshal out of 1994 Argentine Broodmare of the Year Love for Sale (by the good Swaps son Laramie Trail), Not for Sale is a full brother to 1994 Argentine Mare of the Year Stars and Stripes and a half brother to 1994 Argentine champion miler Off the Record (by Over the Ocean). He has lived up to his excellent pedigree by heading the Argentine general sire list in 2014 and is currently third on the Argentine broodmare sire list, the same position he occupied in 2024.
Moon Sale’s dam is the winner Lunación, whose sire Petit Poucet (by 1996 French champion sire Fairy King, a full brother to Sadler’s Wells) won the 1996 San Francisco Handicap (USA-G3) but was not particularly successful as a sire in Argentina. She is a half sister to multiple Argentine Group 2 winner Liz for Sale (by Not for Sale), who placed three times in Group 1 events, and is out of the winner Lu Toss, whose sire, the Grade 2-placed Buckpasser horse Egg Toss, earned two Pellegrini Awards as Argentina’s Stallion of the Year and was a notable broodmare sire.
A half sister to 2000 Gran Premio Nacional (Argentine Derby, ARG-G1) winner Tapatio, who was Argentina’s Horse of the Year that season, Lu Toss is out of the Group 3-placed winner Tenacita (by Prince John’s Grade 3-winning son Lefty, a good sire and broodmare sire in Argentina). Also the dam of Tenace (by Acceptable), dam of 2014, Premio Vicente Dupuy (ARG-G3) winner Tenaz Igual (by Equal Stripes), Tenacita represents a female line that has been resident in Argentina since the 1925 mare Tasha (by Golden Myth) was imported from England.
Moon Frank’s pedigree is slanted toward miler speed, as is Charm’s, indicating that both fillies may be vulnerable as the distance stretches out in Argentina’s next filly Classic, the Gran Premio Selección (Argentine Oaks, ARG-G1), which will be contested over 2000 meters at Palermo. Then again, perhaps not. Class often tells quite as much as distance, and given the class Moon Frank and Charm have shown thus far, as well as close relations who were able to stretch out further, it is entirely possible that they may continue their domination of their division as well as continuing a budding rivalry.
Bred and owned by Haras Gran Muñeca, Moon Frank is from the first crop of the farm’s home stallion, Gidu, an Irish-bred import who did his racing in the United States before being sent on to Argentina. Gidu had enough ability to win two restricted grass stakes races and to place twice at the Grade 3 level, but his primary attraction was his pedigree. He is sired by the great European champion Frankel, who has been following in the hoof prints of his sire Galileo and his grandsire Sadler’s Wells in continuing this branch of the Northern Dancer sire line, and is out of Manerbe, a winning daughter of Unbridled’s Song from a deep Claiborne Farm family, that of Courtesy. His results so far have been promising. Currently third on the Argentine first-crop sire list (his foals of 2023 will not actually begin racing until the spring of 2026), he has sired four Group winners from 22 starters.
Moon Frank is the fifth foal and fourth winner produced from 2015 Premio La Mission (ARG-G2) winner Moon Sale, a daughter of 2000 Gran Premio Ciudad de Buenos Aires (ARG-G1) winner Not for Sale. Sired by the stakes-winning Caro horse Parade Marshal out of 1994 Argentine Broodmare of the Year Love for Sale (by the good Swaps son Laramie Trail), Not for Sale is a full brother to 1994 Argentine Mare of the Year Stars and Stripes and a half brother to 1994 Argentine champion miler Off the Record (by Over the Ocean). He has lived up to his excellent pedigree by heading the Argentine general sire list in 2014 and is currently third on the Argentine broodmare sire list, the same position he occupied in 2024.
Moon Sale’s dam is the winner Lunación, whose sire Petit Poucet (by 1996 French champion sire Fairy King, a full brother to Sadler’s Wells) won the 1996 San Francisco Handicap (USA-G3) but was not particularly successful as a sire in Argentina. She is a half sister to multiple Argentine Group 2 winner Liz for Sale (by Not for Sale), who placed three times in Group 1 events, and is out of the winner Lu Toss, whose sire, the Grade 2-placed Buckpasser horse Egg Toss, earned two Pellegrini Awards as Argentina’s Stallion of the Year and was a notable broodmare sire.
A half sister to 2000 Gran Premio Nacional (Argentine Derby, ARG-G1) winner Tapatio, who was Argentina’s Horse of the Year that season, Lu Toss is out of the Group 3-placed winner Tenacita (by Prince John’s Grade 3-winning son Lefty, a good sire and broodmare sire in Argentina). Also the dam of Tenace (by Acceptable), dam of 2014, Premio Vicente Dupuy (ARG-G3) winner Tenaz Igual (by Equal Stripes), Tenacita represents a female line that has been resident in Argentina since the 1925 mare Tasha (by Golden Myth) was imported from England.
Moon Frank’s pedigree is slanted toward miler speed, as is Charm’s, indicating that both fillies may be vulnerable as the distance stretches out in Argentina’s next filly Classic, the Gran Premio Selección (Argentine Oaks, ARG-G1), which will be contested over 2000 meters at Palermo. Then again, perhaps not. Class often tells quite as much as distance, and given the class Moon Frank and Charm have shown thus far, as well as close relations who were able to stretch out further, it is entirely possible that they may continue their domination of their division as well as continuing a budding rivalry.
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