Midnight Bisou thoroughly impressive in Ogden Phipps win

ELMONT, N.Y. – Come Dancing had a pace advantage in the Grade 1, $700,000 Ogden Phipps, but Midnight Bisou had a talent advantage.

Come Dancing’s two-race win streak ended in the Phipps as Midnight Bisou’s hit four. Come Dancing has a high cruising gear and after a stumbling start made the front and controlled the Phipps’s pace, but she couldn’t find another gear when Midnight Bisou came to her in upper stretch. Midnight Bisou cruised to the front, mainly under her own courage, and Mike Smith guided her through the homestretch for a thoroughly dominant 3 1/2-length win.

Come Dancing held second, three-quarters of a length in front of a closing Mopotism, who had nearly seven lengths on Escape Clause at the wire. Pacific Wind brought up the rear of a five-horse field. Come Dancing was favored at 4-5, and Midnight Bisou made 17-10 look like generous win odds, paying $5.40. She blasted through the one-turn 1 1/16 miles in 1:39.69, just a couple ticks off the course record.

Midnight Bisou, owned by Bloom Racing Stable, Madaket Stables, and Allen Racing, was a fine 2-year-old while based in California with trainer Bill Spawr, who trained her through a third-place finish in the 2018 Kentucky Oaks. Seeking East Coast opportunities, Midnight Bisou’s connections transferred her to trainer Steve Asmussen following the Oaks, and in her first start for the new barn, she won the Grade 2 Mother Goose Stakes over this racetrack last June 30.

Midnight Bisou, though she was placed first in the Grade 1 Cotillion, went on to finish second or third in her next four starts as her rival in the 3-year-old filly division, Monomoy Girl, earned an Eclipse Award. But while Monomoy Girl has been so slow coming back around at age 4 that she’s yet to start this year, Midnight Bisou jumped right back into action Jan. 27, wining the Grade 3 Houston Ladies Classic.

She followed that with two wins at Oaklawn Park in the Grade 2 Azeri and in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom, and while the Apple Blossom was a peak performance, Midnight Bisou showed Saturday she stands at the very top of the older filly-and-mare dirt-route division as summer comes along.

“I think the difference with her this year is she thinks she’s going to win every time,” Asmussen said. “She’s training with such a purpose, such looseness. Every morning, every gallop she approaches with so much consistency. I think last year, she was more just participating, and now she’s planning.”

There was no plan, Asmussen said, to have Smith ensure his mount never let Come Dancing gain too great an early advantage. Come Dancing took two stumbles out of the gate but quickly recovered to go a moderate opening quarter-mile in 23.39, hitting the half in a manageable 45.96.

“She got a little bad start, but as soon as she recovered, she put herself on the lead, and that was the plan,” said jockey Manny Franco. “She was going with her ears up like always, comfortable on the lead. The winner was just the best today.”

Midnight Bisou and Smith briefly dropped back to last in the first furlong, but, going along on a loose rein, Midnight Bisou always kept Come Dancing in her sites while saving ground around the turn. Lithe, feminine, and graceful, Midnight Bisou hugged the rail past the three-furlong marker and at the quarter pole came off the fence to take on Come Dancing, bursting straight to the front.

Midnight Bisou, by Midnight Lute and out of Diva Delite, by Repent, now has a record of 9-3-3 from 15 starts. She played second fiddle to Monomoy Girl for much of last year, but no dirt filly in North America is in a better rhythm than Midnight Bisou right now.