Midnight Bisou (USA)
April 18, 2015 – Living
Midnight Lute (USA) x Diva Delite (USA), by Repent (USA)
Family 21
April 18, 2015 – Living
Midnight Lute (USA) x Diva Delite (USA), by Repent (USA)
Family 21
Midnight Bisou was one of the best 3-year-old fillies of 2018 but was not quite a match for champion Monomoy Girl, although she gained a victory over the champion by disqualification in the Cotillion Stakes (USA-G1). In 2019, she took advantage of Monomoy Girl’s absence from racing to earn a well-merited tltle of her own. She is now in the books as the official winner of the inaugural Saudi Cup, the planet’s richest race, after a four-year investigation into doping of the apparent winner, Maximum Security.
Race record
22 starts, 14 wins, 5 seconds, 3 thirds, US$13,971,520
2017:
2018:
2019:
2020:
Honors
Eclipse Award, American champion older dirt female (2019)
Assessments
Rated at 115 pounds in the Mile category on the 2018 Longines World's Besr Racehorse Rankings, 15 pounds below co-highweights Cracksman (a multiple European highweight) and Winx (the Australian Horse of the Year) and 3 pounds below the top-rated 3-year-old filly on dirt, Monomoy Girl.
Rated at 119 pounds in the Mile category on the 2019 Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings, 9 pounds below overall highweight Crystal Ocean (a multiple European highweight) but best among fillies and mares on dirt.
Rated at 118 pounds in the Mile Category on the 2020 Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings, 12 pounds below overall higweight Ghaiyyath (the European Horse of the Year) and 4 pounds below the top filly or mare on dirt, Gamine (the American champion female sprinter).
As an individual
A good-sized dark bay or brown mare with an exceptionally deep girth, Midnight Bisou typically stalked the pace in her races. She was retired after suffering a right fore sesamoid fracture during a workout at Saratoga on September 28, 2020.
As a producer
Midnight Bisou’s first foal, Bisou, is a 2022 colt by Curlin.
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Midnight Bisou was bred by Woodford Thoroughbreds. After being purchased for US$80,000 from the 2017 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring Sale of two-year-plds in training, she was raced by Jeffrey Bloom’s Bloom Racing Stable in partnership with Chuck and Lori Allen’s Allen Racing and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stable (which bought into the filly in June 2018). In 2020, Chuck Allen bought out his partners in the mare by paying US$5 million for her at the Fasig-Tipton November sale. In 2022, Midnight Bisou (then in foal to Tapit) was purchased for US$5.5 million by Katsumi Yoshida from the Keeneland November mixed sale and was sent to the Yoshida family’s Shadai Farm in Japan.
Pedigree notes
Midnight Bisou is inbred 5x5 to two-time American Horse of the Year Secretariat, the American champion broodmare sire of 1992. She is a half sister to 2023 Indiana Derby (USA-G3) winner Verifying (by Justify) and Grade 3-placed multiple stakes winner Stage Left (by Congrats).
Midnight Bisou is out of 2010 Florida Oaks (USA-G3) winner Diva Delite, a daughter of multiple Grade 2 winner Repent (by Louis Quatorze). Diva Delite, in turn, is one of only two foals produced from listed stakes-placed Tour Hostess, whose sire Tour d’Or (a Grade 1-placed listed stakes winner) is by 1978 Canadian champion 2-year-old male Medaille d’Or, by Secretariat.
A half sister to multiple stakes winner Bay Street Gal (by Marco Bay), Tour Hostess is out of unraced Counsel’s Gal (by 1980 Norfolk Stakes, USA-G1, winner High Counsel, by Apalachee), a half sister to stakes winner Runaway Fair Lady (by Runaway Groom). The next dam in Midnight Bisou’s tail-female line, the Baldski mare T. N. T. Gal, is a half sister to 1974 Roamer Handicap (USA-G2) winner Green Gambados (by Swaps).
Books and media
Footage of Midnight Bisou’s victory in the 2019 Personal Ensign Stakes can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHGzyepCV-A.
Fun facts
Photo credit
Photo taken by Jessica Morgan at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton November sale. Used by permission,
Last updated: August 17, 2024
Race record
22 starts, 14 wins, 5 seconds, 3 thirds, US$13,971,520
2017:
- 2nd Desi Arnaz Stakes (USA-L, 7FD, Del Mar)
2018:
- Won Cotillion Stakes (USA-G1, 8.5FD, Parx Racing; elevated from second by disqualification)
- Won Santa Anita Oaks (USA-G1, 8.5FD, Santa Anita)
- Won Mother Goose Stakes (USA-G2, 8.5FD, Belmont)
- Won Santa Ynez Stakes (USA-G2, 7FD, Santa Anita)
- Won Santa Ysabel Stakes (USA-G3, 8.5FD, Santa Anita)
- 2nd Coaching Club American Oaks (USA-G1, 9FD, Saratoga)
- 3rd Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (USA-G1, 9FD, Churchill Downs)
- 3rd Longines Kentucky Oaks (USA-G1, 9FD, Churchill Downs)
- 3rd Alabama Stakes (USA-G1, 10FD, Saratoga)
2019:
- Won Apple Blossom Stakes (USA-G1, 8.5FD, Oaklawn Park)
- Won Personal Ensign Stakes. (USA-G1, 9FD, Saratoga)
- Won Ogden Phipps Stakes (USA-G1, 8.5FD, Belmont)
- Won Azeri Stakes (USA-G2, 8.5FD, Oaklawn Park)
- Won Beldame Stakes (USA-G2, 9FD, Belmont)
- Won Houston Ladies Classic Stakes (USA-G3, 8.5FD, Houston)
- Won Molly Pitcher Stakes (USA-G3, Monmouth)
- 2nd Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (USA-G1, 9FD, Santa Anita)
2020:
- Won Fleur de Lis Stakes (USA-G2, Churchill Downs)
- Won Saudi Cup (KSA-N, 10FD, King Abdulaziz Racecourse; elevated from second by disqualification)
- 2nd Personal Ensign Stakes (USA-G1, 9FD, Saratoga)
Honors
Eclipse Award, American champion older dirt female (2019)
Assessments
Rated at 115 pounds in the Mile category on the 2018 Longines World's Besr Racehorse Rankings, 15 pounds below co-highweights Cracksman (a multiple European highweight) and Winx (the Australian Horse of the Year) and 3 pounds below the top-rated 3-year-old filly on dirt, Monomoy Girl.
Rated at 119 pounds in the Mile category on the 2019 Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings, 9 pounds below overall highweight Crystal Ocean (a multiple European highweight) but best among fillies and mares on dirt.
Rated at 118 pounds in the Mile Category on the 2020 Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings, 12 pounds below overall higweight Ghaiyyath (the European Horse of the Year) and 4 pounds below the top filly or mare on dirt, Gamine (the American champion female sprinter).
As an individual
A good-sized dark bay or brown mare with an exceptionally deep girth, Midnight Bisou typically stalked the pace in her races. She was retired after suffering a right fore sesamoid fracture during a workout at Saratoga on September 28, 2020.
As a producer
Midnight Bisou’s first foal, Bisou, is a 2022 colt by Curlin.
Connections
Foaled in Kentucky, Midnight Bisou was bred by Woodford Thoroughbreds. After being purchased for US$80,000 from the 2017 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring Sale of two-year-plds in training, she was raced by Jeffrey Bloom’s Bloom Racing Stable in partnership with Chuck and Lori Allen’s Allen Racing and Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stable (which bought into the filly in June 2018). In 2020, Chuck Allen bought out his partners in the mare by paying US$5 million for her at the Fasig-Tipton November sale. In 2022, Midnight Bisou (then in foal to Tapit) was purchased for US$5.5 million by Katsumi Yoshida from the Keeneland November mixed sale and was sent to the Yoshida family’s Shadai Farm in Japan.
Pedigree notes
Midnight Bisou is inbred 5x5 to two-time American Horse of the Year Secretariat, the American champion broodmare sire of 1992. She is a half sister to 2023 Indiana Derby (USA-G3) winner Verifying (by Justify) and Grade 3-placed multiple stakes winner Stage Left (by Congrats).
Midnight Bisou is out of 2010 Florida Oaks (USA-G3) winner Diva Delite, a daughter of multiple Grade 2 winner Repent (by Louis Quatorze). Diva Delite, in turn, is one of only two foals produced from listed stakes-placed Tour Hostess, whose sire Tour d’Or (a Grade 1-placed listed stakes winner) is by 1978 Canadian champion 2-year-old male Medaille d’Or, by Secretariat.
A half sister to multiple stakes winner Bay Street Gal (by Marco Bay), Tour Hostess is out of unraced Counsel’s Gal (by 1980 Norfolk Stakes, USA-G1, winner High Counsel, by Apalachee), a half sister to stakes winner Runaway Fair Lady (by Runaway Groom). The next dam in Midnight Bisou’s tail-female line, the Baldski mare T. N. T. Gal, is a half sister to 1974 Roamer Handicap (USA-G2) winner Green Gambados (by Swaps).
Books and media
Footage of Midnight Bisou’s victory in the 2019 Personal Ensign Stakes can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHGzyepCV-A.
Fun facts
- After a four-year investigation into doping allegations against the connections of Maximum Security, the apparent winner of the 2020 Saudi Cup, Maximum Security was disqualified and Midnight Bisou (who had finished second by three-quarters of a length) became the official winner. The change increased her earnings by US$6.5 million, the difference between the US$3.5 million second-place purse and the US$10 million awarded to the winner. The change also retroactively elevated the mare’s sire Midnight Lute from eighth to second on the 2020 American general sire list.
- Mike Smith, who rode Midnight Bisou in the Saudi Cup, received one of the most expensive rider penalties in history from the Saudi stewards. Judging that Smith had made excessive use of the whip during the stretch drive, the stewards fined him US$200,000, suspended him for nine days, and ordered him to forgo 60 percent of his riding fee, which would normally be 10 percent of the US$3.5 million second-place prize. As of August 3, 2024, it had not yet been determined whether his penalty would be increased to reflect the difference between the second-place purse and the US$10 million winner’s share.
Photo credit
Photo taken by Jessica Morgan at the 2020 Fasig-Tipton November sale. Used by permission,
Last updated: August 17, 2024