Mandaloun, Midnght Bourbon prep for Saudi Cup in Louisiana Stakes
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NEW ORLEANS – Mandaloun and Midnight Bourbon might as well be joined at the hip.
The two 4-year-olds faced off five times during their 3-year-old campaigns of 2021, including three times during the Fair Grounds meeting. They’re the main players Saturday at Fair Grounds in the Grade 3, $150,000 Louisiana Stakes, with both colts prepping for an intended start Feb. 26 in the $20 million Saudi Cup.
The ledger between these two stands at 2 to 2 in races they actually completed. Midnight Bourbon won the Lecomte, where Mandaloun finished third. Mandaloun won the Risen Star, with Midnight Bourbon third. In the Louisiana Derby, Midnight Bourbon finished second while Mandaloun ran a distant sixth in the only bad race of his career. Mandaloun rebounded with a second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, where Midnight Bourbon was sixth.
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They last raced together July 17 in the Haskell Invitational, which Mandaloun won via the disqualification of Hot Rod Charlie. Hot Rod Charlie was taken down for drifting into the path of Midnight Bourbon, who clipped heels, stumbled badly, nearly fell, and dislodged his jockey.
Mandaloun and Midnight Bourbon are drawn alongside one another in Saturday’s 1 1/16-mile contest, and one of them almost certainly will win.
The horse with the best upset chance would have been Chess Chief, but he will be scratched to start next Saturday in the Pegasus World Cup. Pirate’s Punch also is uncertain to run in the Louisiana.
Mandaloun hasn’t raced since the Haskell, with trainer Brad Cox and owner-breeder Juddmonte electing to give the colt a break after he failed to train to their satisfaction during August at Saratoga. Mandaloun’s first post-layoff workout came Nov. 28, and he since has hewn to a steady schedule. Galloping here this week, Mandaloun, who has grown taller and filled in since last summer, has given the impression of an adequately fit horse.
“I think he is,” Cox said. “I just want a good race out of him. It’d be hard to go over to a race like [the Saudi Cup] off a poor performance.”
Midnight Bourbon took a two-month break from racing came between his second in the Preakness and the Haskell. The colt rebounded from that near-disaster to run his two best races, a close second in the Travers behind Essential Quality and a second in the Pennsylvania Derby, won by Hot Rod Charlie. Trainer Steve Asmussen and owner Winchell Thoroughbreds eschewed the Breeders’ Cup in favor of the Grade 1 Clark on Nov. 26, where Midnight Bourbon regressed somewhat in his first race against older horses, finishing third.
Midnight Bourbon hasn’t won since the Lecomte, having finished second or third six times, and Asmussen is trying the colt in blinkers for the first time on Saturday.
“We’re trying to find a little extra, and this being the prep for the Saudi Cup is the right time to try it,” he said. “He has more reason to lose focus than about anyone I have in training considering getting dropped in the Haskell. Just looking for a little more focus to the wire.”
Cox’s second entrant is Warrant, who capped his 3-year-old season with a win in the Oklahoma Derby. He can come back with a strong race in the Louisiana and still miss the exacta.