Louisiana Lightning
Roger Guy Smith strikes again with Allnight Moonlight
By Denis Blake
They say lightning never strikes the same place twice. They, as is often the case, are wrong about that. But it is accurate to say it doesn’t often strike twice, except maybe for a lightning rod on a tall building or with horses purchased by Roger Guy Smith. If you’ve been around the Louisiana racing scene long enough, you probably remember a fleet-footed turf sprinter named Smitty’s Sunshine. She earned more than $500,000 for Smith after being purchased for just $21,000. Now, some 20 years later, Smith has caught lightning in a bottle again with Allnight Moonlight.
A 5-year-old gelding by Ransom the Moon bred by Couteau Grove Farms, Allnight Moonlight is himself closing in on $500,000 in earnings since Smith purchased the Louisiana-bred for the bargain price of $15,000 at the 2021 Texas Summer Yearling Sale.
Smith is quick to credit his trainers for the success of Smitty’s Sunshine and Allnight Moonlight, but the fact remains that the Arkansas-based owner and breeder is the only common denominator between the two horses.
Smith lives in Magnolia, Arkansas, and operates oil wells in the state. But his racing interests are in Louisiana, and that is a tremendous endorsement of the accredited Louisiana-bred program.
Allnight Moonlight is from the first crop of Ransom the Moon, a son of Malibu Moon who spent most of his racing career in Canada and California, which is part of the reason Smith thinks he got his current stable star so cheap. Smith was at the Texas sale with then-trainer Ron Faucheaux, and they acquired the Louisiana-bred for far less than anticipated.
“I had my stud book in my car, and a lot of people didn’t recognize Ransom the Moon because he was a West Coast horse,” recalled Smith. “I went out there and looked him up. Ransom the Moon could go short, long and on the turf, and he actually ended up being a sprinter and beating a horse, Roy H, who won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint twice. I said, ‘Good gracious, Ron. We need to take a shot on this horse.’ And we were willing to go to $40,000 or $50,000 to get him.”
While Smith has had success with pinhooking, he decided against selling Allnight Moonlight as a 2-year-old. It was the right call.
“He was really standing out, like he was going to be something,” said Smith. “So we kept him in. The rest is history, and he turned about to be everything we thought he’d be.”
As it turns out, Allnight Moonlight has been perhaps the best horse sired by Ransom the Moon, as he was his sire’s top earner in 2023 and thus far in 2025. And while Ransom the Moon had his greatest success as a sprinter, Allnight Moonlight has instead excelled around two turns and on the turf. But that was not a big surprise for Smith, who liked Allnight Moonlight because he knew Ransom the Moon had also shown talent going a route of ground and on the turf and synthetic surfaces at Woodbine in Canada.
Allnight Moonlight broke his maiden as a 3-year-old on February 2, 2023, going a mile on the main track at Fair Grounds. He wasted no time becoming a stakes winner, as he won the $75,000 Louisiana Stallion of the Year Half Ours Stakes just 23 days later. A month after that, still at Fair Grounds, Allnight Moonlight became a multiple stakes winner when he took the $100,000 Crescent City Derby. But after he captured the $100,000 Louisiana Legends Cheval Stakes at Evangeline Downs in June, Allnight Moonlight started to tail off as the year went on.
“Ron retired as a trainer, so I had to go through a set of trainers, and they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him,” said Smith. “After a race with (jockey) Jareth Loveberry, I said, ‘Jareth, what’s wrong with his horse? He says, ‘He’s just not pushing off the backside, Mr. Smith. Something’s wrong with him in the rear.’”
Smith was planning to geld the colt anyway, so he sent him to LSU to get checked out, and they found an intestinal issue that required surgery.
“I met with Sam Breaux, and I’d always known him, and that’s who’s training for me now,” said Smith. “We’ve got him back winning races, and he can go on the dirt and mud and turf, but he likes the turf best of all.”
Thanks to a start against $10,000 claiming company at Churchill Downs last year after Allnight Moonlight uncharacteristically finished off the board in four straight races, he was eligible for the $60,000 LA Bred Premier Night Gentlemen Starter Stakes at Delta Downs on February 1 of this year, and that helped the gelding get back on track. After that victory, he posted a 24-1 upset in the $100,000 Edward J. Johnston Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds. That race was on the turf, again proving Smith to be an astute observer of pedigrees, as Ransom the Moon was known as a sprinter but a deeper dive into his race record did show turf success as well. Allnight Moonlight picked up another turf stakes win in the $60,000 Don Stemmans Memorial Stakes in April at Evangeline Downs and then ran second in three more turf stakes. All told, Allnight Moonlight has a record of 26 starts, nine wins, six seconds and a third for earnings of $485,980 and counting.
Allnight Moonlight with jockey Elio Barrera aboard wins the 45th running of the $100,000 Edward J. Johnston Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds. Hodges Photography / Lou Hodges, Jr.
“You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get in the game and run for big purses in Louisiana.”
Roger Smith
Smith got into racing back in the 1980s at Oaklawn Park and has enjoyed a fair amount of success over the years, but it will be hard to match the exploits of Smitty’s Sunshine. Bred by J. Adcock and Neal McFadden and sold for $21,000 at the 2004 Breeders’ Sales Company of Louisiana auction. The daughter of Seeking a Home soon found a home on the turf and developed into one the nation’s top sprinters on that surface for trainer Morris Nicks.
Smitty’s Sunshine launched a six-race winning streak in October 2006 that was truly impressive. She kicked off the streak with an allowance/optional claimer win going about a mile on the turf at Louisiana Downs. From there, she took a big jump in class and scored a 7-1 upset in the $116,400 Pent Up Kiss Handicap at five furlongs on the Churchill Downs turf course. Proving that win was no fluke, she returned to Louisiana and continued to excel in turf sprints with a win in the $100,000 Dr. A.B. Leggio Memorial Stakes at Fair Grounds. After that, she dominated again at Fair Grounds with a three-length triumph in the $100,000 Bienville Stakes. She then went back to Louisville and cruised to a decisive victory in the $111,100 Mamzelle Stakes. That set her up for the $100,000 Distaff Turf Sprint Handicap at Calder Race Course in Florida, where she won again on a sloppy main track after the race was moved off the turf. Over a period of nine months, Smitty’s Sunshine won five straight stakes in three different states.
Smitty’s Sunshine pictured winning the 2008 Louisiana Premier Night Matron, one of seven stakes the filly won in her distinguished career on track.
Her earnings might have been even higher if not for the timing of her career. She made her final start on July 4, 2008, running second in the $100,000 Pierre LeBlanc Memorial Sprint Stakes at Evangeline Downs. Later that year, the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint was inaugurated, and she likely would have been a contender had that race started a year earlier. She concluded her on track career with 9 wins, 3 seconds and 3 thirds from 20 starts and earnings of $532,219.
“She beat some of the best horses in the country, so we were in pretty high cotton,” said Smith about her.
While Smitty’s Sunshine didn’t make it to the Breeders’ Cup, she did go on to become an accomplished broodmare, with her top runner being $333,607 earner Smittys Cougar. The Louisiana-bred daughter of Half Ours won seven of 16 starts for Smith, including two stakes, and only finished off the board twice in her career.
Smith has a small breeding operation and a small racing stable with just a handful of runners, so to have campaigned multiple elite horses is a rare accomplishment. His entire broodmare band consists of just Smitty’s Sunshine, whose latest runner is Smittys Cheetah, a 3-year-old filly by Half Ours who ran second twice against maiden company in February and March this year at Fair Grounds and should be back in the starting gate soon.
Smith lives in Magnolia, Arkansas, and operates oil wells in the state. But his racing interests are in Louisiana, and that is a tremendous endorsement of the accredited Louisiana-bred program. Smith lives about 100 miles from Oaklawn Park, and while it’s hard to ignore the huge purses at that track, he still chooses Louisiana.
“We can run year-round in Louisiana with four racetracks,” he said. “With Arkansas-breds, they only run like 60 days or something. Then you got to find a trainer to shift to Kentucky or somewhere else. I like keeping the same trainer, and you can run in $100,000 races in Louisiana all the time without having to go all over the country.”
Smith said his horses help recharge his batteries and take his mind off work, and of course, winning a bunch of stakes races is always fun too.
“The main thing is watching these young athletes develop and grow, and then you can run for big money with them,” he said about why he enjoys breeding and racing. “You don’t have to spend a lot of money to get in the game and run for big purses in Louisiana.
“For a small guy like me, we’ve had a ton of stakes wins, so I feel lucky to be in the business. And we’ve met a lot of good people doing this.”