Deliberate management brings Midnight Bisou to an apex

ARCADIA, Calif. – Jeff Bloom has all the appearances of a personable human being, but Bloom’s hackles rise when asked about the decision late in the spring of 2018 to make a trainer change with Midnight Bisou. It’s old news, Bloom says, ancient, calcified history long since settled. The move from the esteemed California trainer Bill Spawr had everything to do with an East Coast campaign Bloom envisioned for Midnight Bisou. Because Bloom has a heart, it must have been a tough choice. A year and a half later, no one could say it wasn’t the right choice.

Midnight Bisou finished third in the 2018 Kentucky Oaks and joined the stable of trainer Steve Asmussen.

Four times in the last 12 years, Asmussen has campaigned the Horse of the Year, with Curlin in 2007 and 2008, Rachel Alexandra in 2009, and Gun Runner in 2017.

Essentially, when Asmussen has gotten his hands on a horse with the rare qualities to wind up the best horse in a North American racing season, he hasn’t missed his mark.

Midnight Bisou takes a perfect 7-for-7 2019 record into Saturday’s Breeders' Cup Distaff. In a year where no older male dirt-route horse – the default Horse of the Year category – has asserted dominance, Midnight Bisou has a path to becoming yet another Asmussen-trained Horse of the Year. Bricks and Mortar, also undefeated this season, probably wins the award if he captures the Breeders’ Cup Turf, but his grip on that race, at least going into Saturday, is shakier than Midnight Bisou’s in the Distaff.

:: BREEDERS’ CUP 2019: See DRF’s special section with fields, odds, comments, and more

Eight starts in a season for an American dirt-route horse competing at the highest level is a lot for this era, but Midnight Bisou has taken it all and come back asking for more. Her season has weaved from Sam Houston in January through Oaklawn Park in March and April, on to Belmont in June, to Saratoga and Monmouth, back to Belmont, and finally to Santa Anita, where Midnight Bisou began her career almost exactly two years ago.

“Steve’s a master, right, at campaigning horses,” Bloom said. “When we first talked about how we were going to roll things out for the year, Steve had very smartly come up with a game plan that fit the calendar and everything we were looking for.”

Midnight Bisou has Grade 1 wins in the Apple Blossom, a two-turn 1 1/16-mile race at Oaklawn; the Ogden Phipps, a one-turn 1 1/16-mile race at Belmont; and the Personal Ensign, a two-turn 1 1/8-mile race at Saratoga. At 1 1/8 miles she has beaten Elate, a distance-oriented filly with a big chance in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, and in the Phipps, she beat Come Dancing, a one-turn specialist who’s second choice in the BC Filly and Mare Sprint. In the Phipps, regular rider Mike Smith positioned her a couple lengths off a strong 45.80-second half-mile pace before Midnight Bisou flattened Come Dancing in the homestretch. In the Personal Ensign, Smith and Midnight Bisou raced last of six behind a half-mile in 47.60 seconds before coming with a wide, sustained run to wear down Elate.

“What kind of horse can do those things? Only the real good ones,” Smith said. “She’s extremely intelligent, that’s what makes her so tough to beat. Sometimes she leaves there running, and I let her up there close, and sometimes she wants to be farther back. A lot of it just depends on her, really. You have an idea of how the race is going to develop, where you’re going to be, who the horses to beat are, but I just wait to see what she’s going to do. It’s like a box of chocolates – something different every time.”

Bloom, a former jockey and exercise rider for Hall of Fame trainer Charlie Whittingham, is the principal in Bloom Racing Stable, which buys and sells horses, forms partnerships, and is having a very good 2019. Bloom Racing Stable’s Snapper Sinclair runs Saturday in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile.

Bloom bought Midnight Bisou for $80,000 and said the filly showed obvious talent from the start. She took two narrow defeats to the precocious and talented Dream Tree to begin her career, then won three stakes in a row, including the Santa Anita Oaks, where she rallied from a distant last into a strong front-end bias.

Midnight Bisou’s 3-year-old campaign wound up merely excellent, rather than historic. She was placed first via disqualification over Monomoy Girl in the Cotillion Stakes but finished third to her again in the BC Distaff as Monomoy Girl was named champion 3-year-old filly.

To Asmussen, that campaign-ending defeat felt like a point of departure. “We were disappointed when she was third last year in the Distaff knowing there’s more there that she’s capable of. We weren’t quite there yet. We needed to take care of business.”

In great part, it was a question of maturity with Midnight Bisou, who has hit a different, higher level at age 4.

“She has strengthened up over her top line and through her shoulder, and she’s matured into this gorgeous specimen,” Asmussen said.

Smith said Midnight Bisou as a younger horse could become uptight and unsettled. Now she goes about her business with a relaxed confidence she has displayed training at Santa Anita for Saturday’s race.

Asmussen realized that Midnight Bisou could take a steady diet of racing and had the mental capacity to be managed through a long season with a major year-end goal, never giving too much in a race when it wasn’t required. She won the Houston Ladies Classic by three-quarters of a length and the Molly Pitcher by one length, races in which she would have romped with a Personal Ensign-like performance. There was no need for anything like that.

“Jeff and all of us were aware of what races were significant for her and aware there were a couple breaks in the middle [of the year],” Asmussen said. “I do believe that she is an extremely intelligent horse – you’ve watched her races – and when needing the effort, she keeps her eye on the ball and keeps everything in front of us.”

Bloom now owns the filly in partnership with Madaket Stables and Allen Racing, but Midnight Bisou will have new owners later this month, when she is sold as a racing and broodmare prospect at auction in Kentucky.

“You certainly don’t take decisions like that lightly, but we’re trying not to even think about that right now,” Bloom said. “We just want to enjoy all this while we’re here.”

Curlin was a force of nature and Rachel Alexandra came to Asmussen after winning the Kentucky Oaks by 20 lengths during her Horse of the Year season. Midnight Bisou harks back to Gun Runner, who was very good as a 3-year-old but, following a second-place finish to Arrogate in the Dubai World Cup – one of the best single performances in modern racing – proved untouchable at age 4, winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic by more than two lengths.

The challenge in a Horse of the Year campaign is to hit enough high points during the early and middle parts of the season to get into the conversation, while leaving enough in the tank to finish the job at year’s end.

“I’m extremely proud of the campaign she’s had so far, but we do need to cap it off with a victory in the Distaff,” Asmussen said. “With everything being said, they’re going to line them up Saturday and let you bet on them.”