For more than 70 years, the equine model company Breyer has been the premier brand of horse collectibles, featuring some very famous Thoroughbreds.
There have been popular models of Secretariat , Cigar, Frankel , Zenyatta , Rags to Riches, American Pharoah , Full Moon Rising …
Wait. Who?
That’s right, meet Breyer’s latest Thoroughbred model Full Moon Rising, or Mooney as he’s known now, winless in 10 starts on the racetrack.
Wait. What?
“He won two national championships in two disciplines in the same year but couldn’t bother to win a race,” said Mooney’s owner Marsha Hartford-Sapp.
Beginning this week, Breyer’s Full Moon Rising, a beautiful model of the rare-marking Florida-bred gelding, will be available and will be featured during BreyerFest, a celebration featuring Breyer models that will attract some 30,000 collectors and fans to Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
“It’s amazing. It’s a big thing,” Hartford-Sapp said. “People collect these models from all over the world, little girls, and little boys. Fifty years from now people will still have these models and Mooney will still be in someone’s home.”
So how did Full Moon Rising become a Breyer model? Frankly, it wasn’t for his work on the track. Bred by Betty Jean Cordero and Miracle Hill Farm and owned and trained by Crystal Lanum, Full Moon Rising was winless in 10 starts, two at Gulfstream Park and eight at Tampa Bay Downs in 2019 and 2020. The son of Allamystique’s best finish was a sixth.
When it came time to retire the gelding, “Crystal wanted to make sure she could find a suitable home for him,” said Hartford-Sapp, a decorated equestrian and former equestrian coach at Florida State University. “I got this horse when they offered to sell him. At the time I was looking for a horse for the Retired Racehorse Project.”
While Full Moon Rising didn’t tear it up on the track, he certainly did in other disciplines. In his first year off the track, he was USEF Horse of the Year Western Dressage Open Intro and Western Dressage Suitability, National Champion Western Dressage, and the first Thoroughbred to earn National Pony Cup.
Because of Full Moon Rising’s unusual markings and success, Breyer contacted Hartford-Sapp a year ago about the possibility of making Mooney a model. “They seek out interesting horses to make portraits of, and he has very rare markings for a Thoroughbred.”
Officially listed as a chestnut by the Jockey Club, Full Moon Rising is described by Breyer as sporting dramatic splashes of white on his face, chest, belly, and tail, as well as four eye-catching long white stockings.
Hartford-Sapp, who was traveling to BreyerFest earlier this week, said she’s looking forward to the model of Full Moon Rising, which will be available beginning this weekend.
“The Thoroughbred is an amazing, incredibly versatile horse,” she said.
And some make great Breyer models.
This press release has been edited for content and style by BloodHorse Staff.
