What’s not to love about Malibu Moon? Perhaps his curmudgeonly displeasure at open house stallion shows at Spendthrift, where viewers are warned not to pet or offer fingers to the old man, now 21. But currently at number eight on the leading stallions list, with his Magnum Moon considered the favorite for the upcoming Kentucky Derby, and his sons turning into sires themselves, he seems a bargain at $75,000, while the Tapits and War Fronts of the world are priced far higher. Malibu Moon has already sired a Kentucky Derby winner, Orb, and his list of graded stakes winning sons and daughters takes over his page in the Stallion Register.

His wonderful pedigree, free of both the Storm Cat line and the Unbridled line, says that he is likely to get a big horse from just about any good pedigree. Indeed, inbreeding to Mr. Prospector is rampant among his best get, as is inbreeding to Northern Dancer, as his dose of Nijinsky II, four generations back on his dams’ side, is the little black dress of pedigrees—it goes with anything, and goes anywhere.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my own relationship with Malibu Moon. I own a Malibu Moon mare, out of a Grade 1 winning Gone West mare, and she is representative of what he can create. With her huge hip, broad, heavily muscled chest, and gaskin like a body builder’s upper arm, she’s a gorgeous, stout mare with an intelligent temperament. She looks like Daddy, though without his irascibility. And a couple of years ago, I advised a client to breed his graded stakes winning mare to Malibu Moon, and got a beautiful baby—just ask the KBIF/KTDF representative who came out to inspect it.

Spendthrift declares Malibu Moon to be “A.P. Indy’s Leading Sire,” and, though he may not be as flashy as Tapit, or as fashionable as Flatter or Congrats, his greatness cannot be questioned. With the recent loss of Giant’s Causeway, Malibu Moon is certainly the eminence gris of stallions. If Magnum Moon wins the Derby, expect his father’s stud fee to reflect it, making this the year to breed to Malibu Moon. If his book isn’t already full.

-- Roberta Smoodin