The Horse of the Month : Mojo's Pristina

Mojo’s Pristina is the first foal of our stallion Mikimoto’s Mojo out of Silver Patina by Friend’s Lake. She won a maiden special weight race, at 2 years old, hand ridden to victory by Carlos Marrero.. She was the first winner for our stallion and Maple Valley Farm LLC… Since she was the first winner for our stallion I was interviewed by the Mid-Atlantic magazine. The interviewer said since you have foaled for the last 20 years you probably don’t remember foaling Pristina. I answered, “Oh but I do”…Silver Patina was the first mare bred to our stallion and this was Miki and Patina’s first foal… I remember Pristina was foaled in the small barn, in the first stall on the right at 10 minutes to 12 midnight on February 11, 2011…The song “The Rhythm of Love” was on the radio when she took her first breathe…I know that because that almost became her name…She was a very smart little filly…Funny the things you remember even after foaling over 250 mares over the years…

Mojo’s Pristina is one special girl… She is a huge fan of Peppermints only because she was spoiled by Michael Furr and Linda Sours, who’s farm she lived at for the first 3 month of her life while we delivered a record 48 foals that year…

She was a tough filly on the track and a puzzle to figure out… I was at my wits end...She was three and back home after more poor results on the track… She was putting down good numbers in the morning, very, very easily…but the results in the races at night were very different. …

Maybe there was a way to figure Pristina out, she loved to run!!! I had received an email from a person who pedigreed horses and I thought what do I have to lose? A report was put together for me…It said race her on the Turf, she has a turf pedigree… Oh Wow…We had a month or so before turf season ended… I called trainer, Patrick Jenkins, who took a chance on her…Leave it to say a month later she was entered in a turf race in Laurel, Maryaland… Her odds that day were 102 to 1… I guess they thought she was just going to walk out of the gates… As we watched the race Patrick said she was doing good! I said who are you looking at??? The green silks…He was looking at the lime green but our jockey was wearing Kelly green silks and was second to last…Oh my…But coming into the stretch she past 5 horses…She had found many gears her jockey, Cecily Evans, had said…She came in 3rd out of a 10 horse field... Wahoo… I have a TURF horse, my first TURF horse!!! She came home for the winter and was sent back into training in March… But it wasn’t meant to be, one breeze before her race she pulled her suspensory… She was put in a gel cast and it was determined that her racing career was now over… It broke my heart but it was the right decision!!!

She became a part of my broodmare band…I picked a stallion, Buffum, for her and she was bred on March 17, 2016. We named Pristina’s colt Irish Song in memory of her ½ brother, Mojo’s Irish Song who was born March 17, 2016…