Keeneland will welcome back ‘TDN Rising Star’ Donegal Momentum (Uncle Mo) for the GI Maker’s Mark Mile on April 11, trainer Tom Morley confirmed Sunday. The stakes winner and Grade I-placed colt has recovered well from his March 6 seasonal debut at Fair Grounds.
Morley outlined an ambitious 2025 campaign for the promising turf specialist, which includes targets beyond the Maker’s Mark Mile.
“We’re looking at the GIII Poker Stakes at Saratoga and the GI Fourstardave Stakes over the summer,” Morley said. “I think his ceiling is a mile and a sixteenth. I think he gets a mile well on grass.”
Intriguingly, connections haven’t ruled out testing the colt on dirt in the future.
“There’s a very real possibility that at some point he will run in a seven-furlong graded stakes in New York on the dirt,” Morley explained. “He’s got a lovely pedigree and if he was to go to stud, a graded win on the dirt would be a big play on his resume. It’s something Jerry [Crawford] and I have discussed multiple times.”
Donegal Momentum earned his ‘TDN Rising Star’ designation in his May 2024 main track debut. His development continued steadily throughout last season, culminating in a Listed Gio Ponti Stakes victory at the Belmont Big A meet in early October. That win followed his first turf success against allowance optional claiming company at Saratoga in August.
The Uncle Mo colt concluded his 2024 campaign with a solid performance against elite competition in the GI Hollywood Derby at Del Mar in late November before beginning his winter break.
“We had a go at seeing if he would get nine furlongs and went to California to do that as we felt that the ground might have gone against him in New York,” Morley noted. “[The winner] Formidable Man came back to win the [GI Frank E.] Kilroe at the weekend and Mike McCarthy said to me before the Derby that, ‘I’m only scared of your horse really. I think this is the best turf horse I’ve had in my barn.'”
Morley added, “That was an indication that we were running in what was an above average Hollywood Derby, in my opinion.”
The colt will return to New York to prepare for his Keeneland engagement next month.
