Blue Prize gets the best of Midnight Bisou in Breeders' Cup Distaff

ARCADIA, Calif. – Stick around long enough and dreams do come true.

It happened Saturday at Santa Anita, where three veterans – horse, jockey and trainer –scored the biggest wins of their careers in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

Blue Prize, a 6-year-old mare likely making the final start of her career, got first run over favorite Midnight Bisou to post a $19.80 surprise under 48-year-old jockey Joe Bravo for 59-year-old trainer Ignacio Correas.

Blue Prize, Bravo, and Correas have been to the Breeders’ Cup before, but the 2019 Distaff was the first BC victory for all three. Blue Prize finished fourth in the 2018 BC Distaff for Correas.

Bravo had ridden 20 previous Breeders’ Cup races; his best finish was a third-place finish on Big Blue Kitten in the 2015 Turf. Bravo was emotional in the interview room after the race.

“I've been riding for over 30 years. I win a lot of races. This is not a race. This is something that – wow,” Bravo said. “Mr. Moores, that was my World Series. That there was wow.”

Bravo was addressing the statement to John Moores, co-owner of Merriebelle Stable with Charles Noell. Moores is a former owner of the San Diego Padres.

Moores deferred a decision on selling Blue Prize until after he confers with Noell. As for the Eclipse Award for outstanding older female, the Distaff victory might not be enough.

Distaff runner-up Midnight Bisou probably already clinched the award having won her first seven starts of 2019. In the Distaff, Midnight Bisou dropped off the pace, made a run, but fell short by 1 1/2 lengths.

Her jockey Mike Smith said, “It’s hard to catch them on this track. It’s safe, which is a good thing – it’s the main thing – but it’s hard to make up ground.”

Midnight Bisou’s owners announced earlier Saturday that she was to be withdrawn from the Fasig-Tipton November sale and would race as a 5-year-old in 2020.

Another Distaff entrant returning next year is pacesetter Serengeti Empress, the Kentucky Oaks winner who ran super making her first start against older. She sped to the front, took heat, shook off longshot Mo See Cal and Paradise Woods, led to the eighth pole and tired to third.

Serengeti Empress set fractions of 46.68 seconds for the opening half and 1:10.83 for six furlongs, but weakened in the final furlong. Trainer Tom Amoss said Serengeti Empress would return to Kentucky and get a winter break before embarking on her 4-year-old campaign.

After third-place finisher Serengeti Empress, the complete order of finish was Ollie’s Candy, Dunbar Road, Mo See Cal, Wow Cat, Street Band, Secret Spice, La Force, and Paradise Woods.

Blue Prize qualifies as an upset at 8.90-1, but “upset” is a misnomer. She was the oldest member of the Distaff field at age 6, but she shipped to Santa Anita from Kentucky in the best form of her career.

Blue Prize won the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland in her most recent start, and her trainer was emphatic early this week that she was “as good as ever.”

“It's also my first Breeders' Cup, hopefully not the last one,” Correas said. “It's been a great ride.”

Although a retirement is not official, Blue Prize is 6 and entered to be sold at auction this fall.

“Probably be sad to see her go, but they're going to take good care of her. And it's the horse of a lifetime,” Correas said. “So I don't know if I'm going to have one like her again, but at least I was blessed to have one. And that, in a trainer's career, is a lot to say.”

Blue Prize, who has won 10 races and more than $2.6 million from 23 starts, completed the 1 1/8 miles of the Distaff in 1:50.50.

A daughter of Pure Prize, she was bred in Argentina and made her first four starts there before her U.S. debut in 2017