Midnight Bisou towers over Beldame rivals

ELMONT, N.Y. – Given the degree of difficulty of her last race and the fact her campaign began in January, it would have been no surprise had Midnight Bisou simply been trained up to next month’s Breeders’ Cup.

Yet, her connections never wavered from the day after her nose victory over Elate in the Grade 1 Personal Ensign on Aug. 24 that Saturday’s Grade 2, $300,000 Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park would be Midnight Bisou’s next start. She vanned down here from Saratoga on Sunday and seems to tower over her rivals in the Beldame, a one-turn 1 1/8-mile race that figures to be her tune-up for the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita on Nov. 2.

“This is really good timing. She runs well at Belmont, it’s good spacing between this race and the Breeders’ Cup and, honestly, she’s doing so amazing physically,” said Scott Blasi, assistant to trainer Steve Asmussen.

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Midnight Bisou is 2 for 2 at Belmont. In June 2018, she won the Grade 2 Mother Goose by six lengths. This past June, she won the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps by 3 1/2 lengths over Come Dancing, who has since come back to win two graded stakes.

Midnight Bisou, who is 6 for 6 this year including Grade 1 triumphs in the Apple Blossom and Personal Ensign as well as the Phipps, has come back with a trio of solid workouts at Saratoga.

“Everything I’ve seen from her indicates she’s as good as she’s ever been,” Blasi said.

Mike Smith, the regular rider of Midnight Bisou, has a commitment to ride McKinzie in Saturday’s Grade 1 Awesome Again at Santa Anita, so John Velazquez picks up the mount on Midnight Bisou for the Beldame.

Midnight Bisou, who breaks from the rail, typically comes from off the pace. Identifying the pacesetter in the Beldame is not easy, though perhaps Spring in the Wind, a sprinter stretching out, could be on the lead.

Wow Cat, trained by Chad Brown, won last year’s Beldame when it was a Grade 1 before running second in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, finishing in front of Midnight Bisou. This year, Wow Cat is 0 for 2, including a 10 length loss to Midnight Bisou in the Personal Ensign.

Crimson Frost, a winner of a listed stakes at Monmouth Park on Sept. 2, and Another Broad, who has not been out since finishing seventh in the Grade 2 Delaware Handicap on July 13, complete the Beldame field.

Vexatious, second in the Summer Colony at Saratoga, was entered in the Beldame but was expected to scratch and run in the Grade 1 Spinster at Keeneland on Oct. 6, according to her trainer, Jack Sisterson.