BC Win Would Be Fitting End to Midnight Storm's Career

Phil D'Amato knows how to win at Del Mar.

In the past two summer seasons, the trainer and his charges have put their stamp all over the place. D'Amato nabbed his first Del Mar training title in 2016, and he repeated in 2017, when he tied for first with Richard Baltas.

As the Nov. 3-4 Breeders' Cup World Championships loom, D'Amato is bringing three horses who also are quite familiar with the racetrack. One of those, Midnight Storm , is tied for the most stakes wins at the history of the seaside oval in San Diego County.

In the summer of 2016, Alex Venneri and Little Red Feather's contender was voted grass horse of the meeting thanks to victories in the Eddie Read Stakes (G2T) and Del Mar Mile Handicap (G2T). It was the third consecutive year Midnight Storm won a stakes at the track, following his 2014 Del Mar Derby (G2T) and 2015 Seabiscuit Handicap (G2T) victories.

At the fall 2016 meeting, Midnight Storm added the Native Diver Stakes (G3) on the dirt, which brought his Del Mar stakes total to five to tie with two-time Eclipse Award winner Flawlessly from the 1990s and How Now from the 1950s.

This summer D'Amato had a second grass horse of the meeting in Michael House's Hunt, winner of the Eddie Read and Del Mar Handicap Presented by The Japan Racing Association, and the top sprinter in Agave Racing Stable and Jeffry Wilke's Ransom the Moon, winner of the Bing Crosby Stakes (G1), and all three will return to Del Mar for the Breeders' Cup. Ransom the Moon targets the Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1), while Midnight Storm and Hunt are cross entered—Midnight Storm in the Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1) and Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) and Hunt in the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) and Mile.

A new shooter—multiple stakes winner Proper Discretion, owned by Loooch Racing Stables, who would be making her first start for D'Amato in the Filly & Mare Sprint (G1)—completes D'Amato's Breeders' Cup quartet.

"The way Phil manages these older horses in the morning is unlike anything I've seen, for the many years I've been in this business," said Venneri, who bred Midnight Storm with the late Marjorie Post Dye.

It can be difficult to keep an older horse interested in racing and training, but Venneri said D'Amato "gives them just what they need" and leaves them "wanting more."

D'Amato won his first Breeders' Cup race in 2016 at Santa Anita Park with Obviously, a veteran 8-year-old gelding. In his fifth attempt at a Breeders' Cup race, the son of Choisir (AUS) zoomed down Santa Anita's hillside lawn to capture the Turf Sprint (G1T) and close out a brilliant career.

D'Amato misses having Obviously in the barn, but could eventually get him back as a stable pony.

"Kristin Mulhall is taking care of him for us," D'Amato said. "She's doing a great job in retraining him for a second career. We wanted to give him a little time, and let Kristin work with him and see what he wants to do. He's sound, happy, healthy, and in really good hands."

Obviously was a favorite at the D'Amato barn, and Midnight Storm has been around long enough to inherit that spot.

Venneri originally put Midnight Storm in training with Jorge Gutierrez. In five starts for Gutierrez, he finished second twice and then broke his maiden at Santa Anita in June of 2014.

"It's got to start with Jorge, who got this horse going in the right direction," said Venneri.

D'Amato took over Midnight Storm's training during the 2014 Del Mar meet—shortly after he also took over the stable for his longtime mentor Mike Mitchell, who was battling a brain tumor that took his life in 2015.

Midnight Storm has started 21 times for D'Amato, with nine victories. The 6-year-old Kentucky-bred son of Pioneerof the Nile —My Tina, by Bertrando, has won on turf and dirt, at Santa Anita and Del Mar. But he seems to thrive at the seaside racetrack.

"He's doing great," D'Amato said. "What I love about him is this time of year, when we've been getting these dramatic weather changes and horses' coats are going every different way, he looks like a knight in shining armor. He's just black and glowing and the picture of health right now."

D'Amato will be losing the barn favorite again after the Breeders' Cup. Midnight Storm, unlike Obviously, is not gelded and is scheduled to stand at stud for the 2018 breeding season at Taylor Made Farm near Nicholasville, Ky., in partnership with WinStar Farm. Venneri has retained a substantial ownership percentage in the future stallion.

Midnight Storm won many of his races at Del Mar by setting the pace, something Venneri suggests may not be his only path to victory, no matter which race he goes in.

"The way that he's training, I don't think that we have to put him on the front end," Venneri said. "That is a thing of the past. Phil has done an unbelievable job in the way he settles. He's not anxious. When he sees a horse in front of him, he used to want to attack. Now he waits and waits until he's given the instructions."

Venneri is understandably proud of his horse.

"If we want to go to the lead—there's nobody who's fast enough—we will go to the lead," he said. "If we choose not to, it's because we have full confidence that our horse can settle."

And a win would put Midnight Storm atop the all-time Del Mar stakes record in solitary splendor.