Midnight Bisou, McKinzie Could Meet in Saudi Cup

As the curtain went down on the 36th Breeders' Cup, so too did the stars of its biggest races head off to a new life after the Nov. 2 World Championships at Santa Anita Park.

For Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable's $6 million Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) hero Vino Rosso , there's a trip to Kentucky in his future. The son of Curlin  will ship to Spendthrift Farm Nov. 5 to join the roster of stallions at the Lexington farm.

Klaravich Stables and William Lawrence's Bricks and Mortar capped his career with a victory in the $4 million Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) that may have wrapped up Horse of the Year honors for the Chad Brown-trained son of Giant's Causeway who is bound for Japan and a life at stud at Shadai Farm.

William and Corinne Heiligbrodt's Mitole , who captured the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) for his fourth grade 1 win of the year, is also headed to Spendthrift Farm.

In their absence, a few of the beaten favorites in key Breeders' Cup stakes are scheduled to return to the racetrack in 2020, eager for another crack at Breeders' Cup glory.

Both Midnight Bisou, whose loss at even-money odds in the $2 million Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1) erased her Horse of the Year hopes, and McKinzie, the beaten 5-2 favorite in the Classic, will be major players in next year's Horse of the Year race, and they could meet in, of all places, Saudi Arabia.

Bob Baffert, who trains the son of Street Sense  for Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, said McKinzie exited his runner-up finish in fine shape and would continue racing next year at 5, with the $20 million Saudi Cup—a Feb. 29 race in Riyadh that Baffert called "The Big Ass Cup"—as a potential target. 

The two-time Triple Crown-winning trainer added that following the Saudi Cup, McKinzie could remain in the Middle East to await the March 28 Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (G1), which has a purse of $12 million.

"I think (the Jan. 25 grade 1 Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream Park) is a little too quick, though you never know," Baffert said Nov. 3. "If we don't go there, we can go to Saudi Arabia and then stay there and go to Dubai."

Baffert said he was proud of McKinzie, who finished 4 1/4 lengths behind Vino Rosso over a deep, tiring racetrack, giving him two wins and five seconds in his seven 2019 starts.

"He showed up, and I thought he ran a great race," Baffert said. "He had to deal with all the heavy lifting early, and that took the starch out of him. Vino Rosso is a true mile-and-a-quarter horse, and he got the better of us at the end," Baffert said. "It's a frustrating year because all of his races were good. He was much the best in the (Runhappy Metropolitan Handicap, G1), and the Awesome Again (G1, when he was second to the ill-fated Mongolian Groom) was frustrating. I wanted him to be the champion older horse."

Midnight Bisou was scheduled to be sold at The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's breeding stock sale in Lexington, but the ownership group of Bloom Racing, Madaket Stables, and Allen Racing elected to keep her in training, with Jeff Bloom, the head of Bloom Racing, saying the time is at hand for the Steve Asmussen-trained 4-year-old to take on the boys, perhaps in the Pegasus and/or the Saudi Cup.

"Will she run against the boys? Yes," Bloom said. "We'll look at the Pegasus and the Saudi Cup. She's been consistently happy and sound and thrives on her job, so as long as she wants to do it, we'll let her run. We'll work out a plan to get back to the Breeders' Cup."

Bloom felt the racetrack worked against the daughter of Midnight Lute  as Blue Prize got the jump on her on the final turn and Midnight Bisou, who was eighth after six furlongs, was unable to reel her in. She finished second, 1 1/2 lengths behind a 6-year-old Pure Prize mare who will be offered Nov. 5 at The November Sale.

"She had too much work to do. She was covered with dirt and not getting first run on (Blue Prize). She ran huge considering what she was up against," Bloom said. "I thought it was an extraordinarily deep track, and it seemed to compromise some horses' chances. First and foremost, you want safety, but to overcompensate and change the track, there's a fine line. It was clearly a tough track for a lot of horses to run over, and, to me, that made our filly's performance that much more impressive. She got the worst of it from where she was. She was loaded up with a lot of dirt and weight. She was almost blinded, she had that much dirt on her.

"It's heartbreaking for us. To miss by that much and not have the best chance to showcase what she could have done was unfortunate."

As for Baffert's three other Breeders' Cup starters, he was most pleased with the effort of Baoma Corporation's 2-year-old filly Bast, who battled for the early lead and finished third behind British Idiom in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

"Bast gutted it out. It was a wicked pace," Baffert said about a :46.02 half-mile. "She should have stopped, but she went on. She's gutty."

The Hall of Fame trainer listed the $300,000 Starlet Stakes (G1) at Los Alamitos Race Course Dec. 7 as a possibility for the daughter of Uncle Mo . 

Baffert was still puzzled by a weak effort from Eight Rings, who finished sixth as the 3-2 second choice in the $2 million TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).

"Eight Rings didn't show up, but he looks healthy," Baffert said. "I was disappointed in Eight Rings because he's special. I must have prepped him wrong. He was fine afterwards. We didn't see the real Eight Rings."

Baffert mentioned the $200,000 Los Alamitos Futurity (G2) Dec. 7 as a possibility for the son of Empire Maker  owned by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, Madaket Stables, Fred Hertrich III, John Fielding, Golconda Stables, and the Coolmore partners.

"We might run him again this year if he looks good," he said.

Improbable, a 3-year-old son of City Zip owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, and Starlight Racing, never fired while finishing fifth as the 9-2 second choice in the $1 million Big Ass Fans Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1). He'll get a rest after a campaign that included starts in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) and the Preakness Stakes (G1).

"I'm going to freshen him up," Baffert said. "He's just a little sour now. He was good in the gate, but he got hit in the eye with something. His eye was closed when he came back. I don't know if that affected him."

While McKinzie might not make it to the Pegasus, Baffert has another possibility for the $9 million, 1 1/8-mile stakes in Roadster, a 3-year-old son of Quality Road  who ran second to grade 1-placed Flagstaff in the $98,000 Damascus Stakes on Saturday.

It was his first start since a second-place finish in the June 16 Affirmed Stakes (G3) for Speedway Stable's Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner.

"He's the kind of horse you might see in the Pegasus," Baffert said. "I think he'll be good. We'll run somewhere before that. I finally got his feet right, and he's going to get better with distance, so we'll play it by ear."

Omaha Beach on Course for Malibu

Trainer Richard Mandella said Fox Hills Farms' Omaha Beach  exited a runner-up finish in the Dirt Mile in fine shape and that the beaten even-money favorite was still on course for the Malibu Stakes (G1) Dec. 26 at Santa Anita Park.

"He just kind of broke flat-footed and didn't get away the way he should. I hesitate to make excuses for him, but he didn't have a lot of experience getting dirt tossed at him, and he seemed to think about it. Then he got over it and went on. He made a courageous run," Mandella said.

Mandella said the Pegasus remains the "big goal" for the two-time grade 1-winning son of War Front  who had a four-race winning streak snapped.