Midnight Bisou retired from racing after fracture

Midnight Bisou, the champion older mare of 2019, has been retired from racing after sustaining a fractured sesamoid in her right front fetlock, her connections announced in a press release Wednesday.

Midnight Bisou had worked a routine half-mile Monday morning in 50.15 seconds at Saratoga in advance of a scheduled start in Sunday’s Grade 1, $400,000 Spinster Stakes at Keeneland. Cooling out after the work, assistant trainer Scott Blasi noticed the filly was off in her right front.

Dr. Larry Bramlage confirmed the injury Wednesday after evaluating the 5-year-old mare at the Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky.

No surgery is required, and Midnight Bisou has been sent to WinStar Farm where she will be turned out. Midnight Bisou will be offered as a broodmare prospect at the Fasig-Tipton bloodstock auction on Nov. 8.

“I cannot begin to tell you what this mare has meant to me, my family, and my partners,” Jeff Bloom, managing partner of Bloom Racing, which were the co-owners of Midnight Bisou, said in a press release. “The places she has taken us and the thrills she has given us are immeasurable. And just to be in her presence is what greatness is all about.”

Midnight Bisou, a daughter of Midnight Lute, compiled a record of 13 wins, 6 seconds, and 3 thirds in 22 starts. She earned $7,471,520. All 13 of her victories came in graded stakes. She won five Grade 1 events, including the Santa Anita Oaks, Cotillion, Apple Blossom, Ogden Phipps, and Personal Ensign.

This year, she went 1 for 3, winning the Grade 2 Fleur de Lis Handicap at Churchill Downs in between a second-place finish to Maximum Security in the inaugural Saudi Cup and a second-place finish to Vexatious in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign at Saratoga in August.

Trained by Bill Spawr in Southern California for her first six starts, including three graded stakes wins, Midnight Bisou made her final 16 starts for trainer Steve Asmussen.

“I’m just so grateful I got to be part of her incredible journey and I’m just so excited to watch the next phase of her life, watch her become a mother and for her babies to hit the track with all of her class and elegance and continue the Midnight Bisou legacy,” Bloom said.

From the beginning, Bloom’s partners in Midnight Bisou were Lori and Chuck Allen. Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables bought into Midnight Bisou following her third-place finish in the Kentucky Oaks.