June 2018 Member of the Month: Patricia L. Moseley

Four-year-old Proctor’s Ledge continues to get better and better.

Four-year-old Proctor’s Ledge continues to get better and better. In 2018, Patricia L. Moseley’s homebred filly has tallied the May 5 Longines Churchill Distaff Turf Mile Stakes (G2T) and placed in both the June 9 Longines Just a Game Stakes (G1T) and the March 10 Hillsborough Stakes (G2T). Last summer, she captured back-to-back stakes at Saratoga: the Lake George Stakes (G3T) and Lake Placid Stakes (G2T). For Moseley, Proctor’s Ledge (Ghostzapper — Archstone, by Arch) is the culmination of a fifty-year association with this family.

In the 1960s, Moseley and her late husband, Jim, wanted to get involved with Thoroughbreds. Little did they know that their first horse–a filly named Drumtop, a member of Round Table’s 1966 crop and a maternal great-granddaughter of blue hen Rough Shod II—would become their best. Of Proctor’s Ledge, Moseley said, “This is the first one that’s shown a resemblance to Drumtop, but we were so young [at that time] that we didn’t realize this [Drumtop] was a once-in-a-lifetime kind of filly.”

Moseley credits A.B. “Bull” Hancock Jr., legendary master of Claiborne Farm, with picking out Drumtop. She said that the Hancocks “were very close to my husband’s uncle, Jim Brady, and we were just starting out and we were at the sale at Saratoga and Bull picked her out…he advised us heavily to get this filly and she turned out be great.”

Racing in Jim Moseley’s silks, Drumtop drummed her opponents into the ground. Before Eclipse Awards for top turf mare were even awarded, Drumtop crisscrossed the country to conquer major races against colts and fillies alike. Her triumphs include setting a course mark while defeating champion Fort Marcy in the 1970 Canadian International Championship Stakes.

Once retired, Drumtop foaled three stakes winners, including solid sire Topsider, group 3 winner Brogan, and 1979 Cascade Stakes victor War of Words. She died while foaling a Mr. Prospector filly in 1983. But that final foal, later named Aliata, proved her worth, foaling the handy sire Storm Boot (by Storm Cat) and stakes-placed Archstone, the aforementioned dam of Proctor’s Ledge. “I said, to have a fairly decent stallion in your lifetime, that as well is very lucky,” Moseley said. To have two in Storm Boot and Topsider is downright extraordinary.

Moseley maintains her decades-long relationship with the Hancocks. She boards between eight to ten mares in Kentucky, including several at Arthur Hancock III’s Stone Farm near Paris, Kentucky. Others reside at Crestwood Farm, where Storm Boot stood, and Hunter Valley Farm, birthplace of Proctor’s Ledge. Moseley maintains a similar number of mares at her New York nursery.

The mating of Archstone to Ghostzapper was a fortuitous one. Moseley bought a season to the 2004 Horse of the Year at a fundraiser for the Thoroughbred Retirement Fund in 2012. She remembered, “I do kind of keep current and I [did] see him and he seemed to be fairly reasonable for who he was, at that point. And then the stud fee came up at the auction and it seemed an opportunity to cash in.” Archstone has a suckling full sister to Proctor’s Ledge and a two-year-old by Street Sense.

Moseley is an avid supporter of Thoroughbred aftercare efforts, saying, “I think a lot of them like to have another job.” For example, her nephew, a ten-goal polo player, turned a lackluster racing son of Topsider into a top-notch polo pony and stallion. However, another passion–Massachusetts racing–hasn’t fared so well recently. As chairman of historic Suffolk Downs near Boston, Jim Moseley worked tirelessly to restore the track to its former glory, along with Patricia. For a few years, he managed to revive interest, which eventually flagged after his passing in 1998. Moseley said, “It’s just awful […] When I think Suffolk closed, in about in the late ’80s, I believe, and I remember, we were driving back from New York and Jimmy said it was terrible, we have to do something about it, and that’s why we worked so hard to revive it and now look what’s happened.” Currently, Suffolk is only holding a handful of summertime races, although its grounds have been proposed as a headquarters for corporate giant Amazon.

Through all the ups and downs, Moseley’s devotion to the sport and her horses has never flagged. With her tenacity, even temper, and ties to Drumtop, Proctor’s Ledge has brought her particular joy. When given carrots, “she’s a little nonchalant about them. She doesn’t take your arm off trying to get them,” Moseley recalled. On the track, the filly breathes competitive fire, but around the barn, she’s just “Proctor,” the latest star in the ever-bright firmament of Patricia Moseley.