CT: Now healthy, Moonlit Notion rediscovers winning ways
Ted Black
January 30, 2026
Trainer Tim Grams is among the many conditioners who have had horses sidelined with various minor ailments and illnesses. But his talented homebred Moonlit Notion is rounding back into form after missing time and losing weight following an unusual medical condition not commonly associated with horses.
After winning the first six starts of his career, including the $75,000 Coin Collector Stakes, Moonlit Notion, by Great Notion out of Grams’s homebred multiple stakes winner Moonlit Song, appeared on target for a memorable sophomore campaign. But in the weeks after taking the Coin Collector, Moonlit Notion developed digestive issues that would cause him to lose some 300 pounds during his prolonged recovery process.
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“One day last spring I was checking his stool and noticed it was hard as a rock,” Grams said. “I didn’t give it much thought at first, but it was concerning. Then a couple days later I noticed there was no stool. Then a few days later still none. So, I took him to get examined and the vets said he was compacted. So, from there he went to Morven Park for an operation and right away he was going to be out 90 days.”
Once Moonlit Notion had surgery and received a clean bill of health, Grams gradually put him back in training. But the missed time meant that he would miss the West Virginia Breeders’ Classics events which would have been his primary objective had he remained healthy.
“When he came back he had lost so much weight and so much muscle, I didn’t want to push him toward the Breeders Classics,” Grams said. “I was just happy to have him back. I mean, he had already won a stakes and he was only three, so there was no point rushing him back. I thought he finished the year running well.”
Moonlit Notion was entered in and scratched from the WVBC Dash for Cash and made his return to action four days later in an allowance contest, finishing third. After a repeat third-place finish, Moonlit Notion finished second twice in two more allowance races over the strip in November to cap a solid, albeit improvised sophomore campaign with five wins and over $133,000 banked from nine seasonal tries.
More importantly for his conditioner, Moonlit Notion was back in peak health and ready for a four-year-old campaign that Grams hopes will live up to the colt’s early promise. That began Jan. 10 when he returned to the winner’s circle, winning a 4 ½-furlong allowance by three parts of a length under jockey Larry Reynolds as the 3-10 post time favorite.
“He was doing good heading into that race, but I was still a little concerned with how we would handle the sloppy track,” Grams said. “Then he just kind of walked into the gate and he stood there flat-footed and missed the break. He must have spotted them five lengths. Then he started his rally down the backside and at the top of the lane I could tell he was going to win it.”
Moonlit Notion is the first colt and second foal out of the Grams homebred mare Moonlit Song, who won 14 of 26 starts and over $400,000, scoring in five stakes highlighted by a victory in the WVBC Cavada. Her first foal, Moonlit Kiss, the older full-sister to Moonlit Notion, has won seven of 19 starts and earned over $180,000 but is still searching for her first stakes victory.
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