Carl Moore is the TOBA April Member of the Month.

Carl Moore

Passion, luck and a keen eye can get you far in the horse business; Carl Moore has had all three in spades. At the 2019 Keeneland September Yearling sale, a son of Curlin sold for $800,000. Named Scarlet Fusion, the colt scored just a few minor wins. In 2022, Scarlet Fusion sold to Carl Moore and Brad Grady for a fraction of his original price. In 2023, the five-year-old delivered on his promise, capturing the Jan. 28 John B. Connally Turf Cup Stakes (G3T) at Sam Houston.

Moore bought Scarlet Fusion at a bargain-basement price at the Keeneland Horses of Racing Age sale. He said, “We’re thinking we’d go to $150[,000] max, and he went through the ring as number one, and we bought him for $110,000. And like I say, Brad loved that horse. I liked it, I just didn’t think it was going to be in our price range that we wanted to pay. And he still had conditions and he’s turned out to be a superstar.” Moore added, “We think he’s special and he loves to go a mile and a half. The farther, the better for him. He could actually become a stallion because he’s a graded winner now and he’s a Curlin out of an unbelievable mare.”

A half-brother to four graded w inners, Scarlet Fusion is the latest success for Moore and his wife Valinda. The pair are based on a 200-acre farm in Fort Worth, Texas. Valinda is a keen barrel racer, while Moore has adored equines for decades. In the 1960s, his parents raced Quarter Horses at Texas tracks and New Mexico’s Ruidoso Downs. In the summer of 1972, Moore went to work at Ruidoso.

He recalled, “I actually went out there as a groom and I ponied horses in the mornings and I ponied horses to the gates. And I literally worked from the backside. […] Everything about it as a groom taught me so much, and that hooked me. And I’m actually allergic to horses, hay, dust, everything that’s around,” he added. His Quarter Horse charges included Big Profit, who set a world record over 550 yards.

Moore embarked on a successful career, married and had a family. But his attention was drawn back to the track when Lone Star Park opened in 1997. He began claiming horses of his own, and the rest, as they say, is history. Currently, he has about 20 runners with trainers Joe Sharp and Karen
Jacks.

One sage claim was Chamberlain Bridge. The hard-knocking gelding won 19 of 53 starts, including the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G2T), and earned $1,953,016. As a retiree, Chamberlain Bridge resides on Moore’s farm. “Oh, he loves peppermints,” Moore said, “and yeah, to go by and see him every day and pet on him, it’s pretty neat.”

Moore has found other gems at auction. More than a week into the 2014 Keeneland September sale, he was perusing the offerings with conditioner W. Bret Calhoun. Moore remembered that Calhoun was having trouble finding prospects. In response, Moore recalled, “I said, ‘Well, Bret, I got five that I saw this morning that I actually love.” I looked at about fifty and I asked him to look at the five I absolutely love. He said, Brilliant.’”

Calhoun loved several of those youngsters, including a Twirling Candy yearling filly. “And when I looked at her, she was kind of immature, but she looked just so balanced and athletic,” Moore remembered. The $77,000 purchase, named Finley’sluckycharm, proved to be a speedster. Moore dubbed her “a freak horse.” He added, “She is unbelievable. She’s won the only grade one race I’ve ever won, the [2018] Madison [Stakes] at Keeneland. That was a heck of an experience.” At the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale, the mare sold to Katsumi Yoshida for $1.5 million.

Despite the industry’s ups and downs, 2023 successes like Scarlet Fusion—and Texas-bred Imaluckycharm, who captured the $75,000 Miss Bluebonnet Turf Stakes on Feb. 18—help keep Moore’s love for the game alive. “The key to me is, put good people around you that you enjoy and trainers, people that break the horses for you, just good people,” Moore emphasized. “Because we all know, in racing, there’s a lot of highs and a lot of lows, and you better enjoy those highs because there’s more lows. And having good people around you makes it all worthwhile.”