Vexatious survives Midnight Bisou's bid, stewards' inquiry to win Personal Ensign
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Though Vexatious had fallen short against some of the top older fillies and mares in training over the last year, she had run well enough for her connections to keep trying.
Saturday, against the top older filly or mare in the division, Midnight Bisou, Vexatious came with a breakthrough performance, upsetting the reigning champion older dirt female by a neck in the Grade 1, $500,000 Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga.
Stalking the pace-setting Motion Emotion through the first six furlongs of the race, Vexatious poked her head in front at the three-furlong pole. With 1-5 favorite Midnight Bisou bearing down on them in the stretch, jockey Jose Lezcano took Vexatious out 2 1/2 paths to engage. An emboldened Vexatious held Midnight Bisou at bay to the wire.
The stewards posted the inquiry sign, and Ricardo Santana Jr., the jockey of Midnight Bisou, lodged an objection. After a lengthy review, the stewards let the result stand.
For his part, Lezcano admitted to bringing Vexatious out in order to see Midnight Bisou. Though the official chart says Vexatious and Midnight Bisou bumped 40 yards from the wire, Lezcano said that did not happen.
“I always had control of my horse,” Lezcano said. “I know I came out to show her to [Midnight Bisou]. I never bumped. I was trying to engage my filly to keep going.”
Jeffrey Bloom, the managing partner of Bloom Racing, which owns Midnight Bisou, saw it differently.
“If you watch the head-on, there’s no question that horse came over and bumped her,” Bloom said. “And, she got bumped at a point where a horse is just really starting to dig in and collect themselves. I was hopeful they would [make a change], but they didn’t.”
Last summer, at Saratoga, Vexatious came within a neck of Blue Prize in the Summer Colony Stakes. Blue Prize went on to win the Grade 1 Spinster and then the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, defeating Midnight Bisou. Three weeks ago, Vexatious came within two lengths of Monomoy Girl, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2018, in the Grade 2 Ruffian at Belmont Park.
Her subsequent training at Saratoga under the guidance of assistant trainer Mark O’Dwyer gave trainer Jack Sisterson the confidence to run her back in the Personal Ensign.
“She’s been within a few lengths of the top fillies in the country and she showed to the public that she can run with the top fillies,” said Sisterson, who watched the race from Keeneland. “The filly really dug down and she showed to us and everybody else that she could do it.”
Vexatious, a daughter of Giant’s Causeway owned by Brad Kelley’s Calumet Farm, covered the 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.82 and returned $21 to win.
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Midnight Bisou was second by 6 1/4 lengths over Point of Honor, who was followed by Motion Emotion and Abounding Joy.
Vexatious won for just the fourth time in 23 starts and the first time since 2018, when she was placed first by the Keeneland stewards in the Grade 3 Dowager Stakes on turf.
Vexatious earned an automatic berth into the $2 million Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Keeneland on Nov. 7. Sisterson said she would likely have one more start before then, in either the Spinster at Keeneland or the Beldame at Belmont.
This was the first Grade 1 victory for Sisterson, a former assistant to Doug O’Neill who left to become a private trainer for Calumet in the spring of 2018.
“I’m taking no credit for this,” Sisterson said. “It reads my name in the program but there are a hundred people behind the scenes who do a lot more than I do. There are lot of people to thank, most of all Vexatious for her gutsy performance.”