Proctor Street Keeps the Drum Beat Going for Moseley

Thanksgiving is a holiday all about family, and Patricia Moseley was able to celebrate her most important equine family line's continued success Nov. 27. Her homebred daughter of Street Sense, Proctor Street, was bold while rallying between horses for a 3/4-length triumph Thursday in the $289,665 Cardinal Stakes over the Churchill Downs turf. The elevation to stakes winner was just another feather in the cap for a family that has been with Moseley for five generations. Horses had always been in Moseley's blood. Her mother was a gentlewoman steeplechaser and her father owned several race horses in England that she would travel to see. In the 1960s, Moseley and her late husband, Jimmy, decided to get involved in racing and breeding themselves, spending $47,000 on a yearling daughter of Round Table who would be named Drumtop. The price point was higher than the Moseleys were intending to spend on their first horse, but thanks to Claiborne Farm's Bull Hancock, they were encouraged to join a partnership with Alice Chandler. Drumtop would go on to have an incredibly successful career, winning 10 stakes from 1969-71 and earning just under a half million dollars. She set three course records and defeated males on several occasions. "At that age, you didn't realize how difficult it was to have a horse of that caliber," Moseley said. "She absolutely thrilled us and had such a distinguished career. She beat the boys numerous times, so that was pretty thrilling." When Drumtop's racing career was complete, Chandler wanted to sell the mare, but the Moseleys wanted to keep her to breed. Owner/breeder Paul Mellon, an inaugural Pillars of the Turf inductee into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, had been defeated in several races by Drumtop and took an interest in the her. "We never could've afforded to buy her back at that point," Moseley said. "When we went to (Mellon), he said, 'She's beaten me so many times.' He bought the other half of her and we'd alternate foals." Drumtop proved successful as a broodmare. She produced three stakes winners: solid sire Topsider, group 3 winner Brogan, and 1979 Cascade Stakes victor War of Words. She also produced Aliata, the dam of stakes-placed Archstone. Archstone then produced Proctor's Ledge, a three-time graded stakes winner and grade 1-placed daughter of Ghostzapper who is the dam of Proctor Street. Moseley said Proctor Street has always been on the smaller side, but the bloodline she carried gave her confidence in the filly's potential. "I always believed in her more than anybody else just because I knew what her bloodlines were," Moseley said. Proctor Street began her career with a maiden win at Horseshoe Indianapolis and has steadily climbed the ranks. She has won five of eight starts, hitting the board seven times, for earnings of $451,910. Yet, even if she was not having success, she still holds great sentimental value to Moseley. A few years ago, Proctor's Ledge died while foaling and lost her foal in the process. Within the same year, Proctor's Ledge's Street Sense half sister, Choate Bridge, also died. "Her mother had died and (Proctor Street) was all that was left of that line," Moseley said. "It means a lot for her to do so well. Even if she didn't do well, she still meant a lot to me." In the decades that have followed Drumtop's racing career, it has always been key for Moseley—a resident of Massachusetts and former chairwoman of Suffolk Downs—to maintain the Drumtop line in her breeding operation. Moseley currently has about 10 mares split between Kentucky and New York. "This was such a foundation family at Claiborne, it was such a strong family," Moseley said. "We kept most of it, I think I've sold very little out of it. I totally believe in the family, it's been pretty good to us. Hopefully it will bloom again with Proctor (Street)." Proctor Street seems primed for a strong 4-year-old campaign with trainer Brendan Walsh at the helm. Walsh also trained Proctor's Ledge and her final foal, a 3-year-old full brother to Proctor Street named Streetcar, who is unplaced in two starts. "Proctor's Ledge certainly had plenty of success, but Brendan keeps saying this one could possibly be better," Moseley said. "That is more than I could possibly dream of."