Maryland Million Watch Spotlight: Miss J McKay

On October 18, 1986, Jim McKay saw his vision for a Maryland-sired stakes program come to fruition when Sam-Son Farm’s two-year-old filly Smart Halo captured the very first Maryland Million race. After attending the inaugural Breeders’ Cup, McKay conceived the idea of an event featuring Maryland-sired horses with purses totaling one million dollars, and the event’s success has since sparked many similar programs in other states. Appropriately, one of the rising stars we could see on Jim McKay Maryland Million Day 2019 is a filly named Miss J McKay.

Miss J McKay is the first starter and winner for Murmur Farm’s Hangover Kid, and in her two starts to date has yet to see another horse beat her to the wire. The 2-year-old filly, owned by Maxis Stable and trained by Cathal Lynch, debuted as the odds-on favorite in a 5 ½ furlong waiver maiden claiming on the dirt at Laurel Park, and delivered in emphatic fashion as she crossed the wire 5 ¼ lengths in front of her nearest rival.

After a turf workout at Laurel, her connections were confident she could transfer that ability to the turf for Monmouth Park’s Colleen Stakes. Miss J McKay raced close up while three wide early on, but drifted in and bumped rivals when making a move in the stretch before kicking clear to finish three lengths in front. Following a steward’s inquiry and jockey objection, she was disqualified and placed third.

“We were very pleased with her first race,” said Cal Lynch, “The Colleen was a little disappointing in that she acted a little green, responding whenever Jorgie [jockey Jorge Vargas, Jr.] hit her right-handed, but she’s a very nice filly and she’s a filly that we think very highly of. We thought enough of her to buy her brother before the Colleen, so I think that was a big race.”

A $1,500 weanling at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton December Mixed sale, Miss J McKay was purchased for $55,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale last October as a pinhooking prospect for Maxis Stable, but when she didn’t meet her $85,000 reserve price at the 2019 Ocala Breeders’ Sales April two-year-old auction, she was sent to join Cal Lynch’s string at Laurel.

“I’d seen her at the sale, we bought five or six at the sale, ourselves, and she was a filly we liked, but I knew the reserve was set pretty high on her so I was fairly confident we would bring her back. Good walk, nice shoulder, beautiful head, pretty-eyed filly. Lots of stuff we liked, you know. And the fact that she’s MD-bred doesn’t hurt,” Lynch said of the two-year-old. “Her work was a little green, I think it was 10.2 but she hit the rail and was a little uncoordinated at that stage. Luckily for me, she didn’t meet her reserve, so they brought her on up and she’s been a dream to train so far. Everything’s been very straightforward.”

Lynch expects we’ll see Miss J McKay in the Anne Arundel County Stakes on September 28, going 5 ½ furlongs on the turf at Laurel and then in the Maryland Million Lassie. “With her name, absolutely we’ll be planning on going to the Maryland Million.”

Hangover Kid stands for $2,500 at Murmur Farms, and according to farm owner Audrey Murray, interest in him for the 2020 breeding season has already spiked.

“The dam of [Miss J McKay], the owner is breeding back to Hangover Kid and breeding two more mares, and then I just had [trainer Cal Lynch] visit and he wanted to see Hangover Kid for several of his clients. So that is exciting, we’re getting a lot of interest.”

“They’re beautiful foals and very well-mannered,” Murray said, “Great dispositions, all of them, so that’s a big help. And he is, too. He’s a very well-mannered stallion. Agreeable, he does anything you want. He’s a good breeding horse, he’s fertile, so hopefully he will breed a lot of mares. It’s been hard to attract mares because we have all these new stallions that have come into Maryland, so there’s a lot of competition.

“There hasn’t been any talk about changing his stud fee, and he’s very reasonable, so we’ll just wait and see what happens, but already there’s a lot of buzz, and still a few months until breeding season. A lot of people don’t decide until the last minute – they don’t book way ahead, so we’ll see. He’s already drawing attention, so hopefully we’ll breed a nice number of mares this year.”

This isn’t the first time Murmur Farms has seen a young stallion find success early on. From 1993 through 1997 they stood a stallion by the name of Deerhound, whose daughter Countess Diana won the 1997 Breeders Cup Juvenile Fillies. Deerhound was subsequently sold to Brookdale Farm in Kentucky for the 1998 breeding season.