Breeders' Cup Legends: Midnight Lute

Midnight Lute wins the 2008 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Santa Anita Park. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
Midnight Lute was a sensational sprinter and, if not for a breathing issue, he might have been great at longer distances as well.
A two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, Midnight Lute won six races and finished in the top three in four others in a 4-year career that was limited to 13 races due to three throat operations.
Midnight Lute was owned by Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman and trained by Hall of Famer Bob Baffert. Baffert had selected 1998 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Real Quiet for Pegram, and Baffert was instrumental in the partnership choosing to buy Real Quiet’s son Midnight Lute as well. Midnight Lute, out of the Dehere mare Candytuft, sold for $70,000 as a yearling at Keeneland before being entered in the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March sale of selected 2-year-olds in training. The colt reached a bid of $290,000 but did not meet his reserve, and Baffert and the Pegram partners negotiated the purchase after the auction.
Baffert began preparing the imposing near-black colt for a Del Mar debut, and Midnight Lute did not disappoint. The colt broke his maiden in his first start, winning at six furlongs as the 4-to-5 favorite. After the race, he was found to have a breathing problem and was given time off for surgery and recovery. In the spring of 2006 it was determined that another surgery would be required, forcing the colt to miss the Triple Crown season.
Midnight Lute made his second career start more than a year after his first. He finished second by a half-length in a Del Mar allowance race in July before winning one a month later and then rolling to an open-lengths victory in Keeneland’s Grade 3 Perryville Stakes. He finished the season with a third-place effort in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes.
The colt’s connections decided to stretch him out for his first 4-year-old appearance, and he came within a nose of winning the Grade 2 San Fernando Breeders’ Cup Stakes at 1 1/16 miles. Two subsequent fourth-place finishes were followed by a third throat operation, and he was rested until the Saratoga Race Course meet.
Midnight Lute returned with a flourish, dominating the Grade 1 Forego at seven furlongs. Future champion Benny the Bull was 2 ¼ lengths behind and it was a gap of more than nine lengths to the third-place finisher. But Midnight Lute was just getting warmed up.
In the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Sprint, the colt turned in one of the most impressive performances of the year. Midnight Lute was 8 ½ lengths behind the leaders with just two furlongs remaining. He launched a spectacular rally on the sloppy, sealed track, inhaling the leaders and drawing off to a scintillating 4 ¾-length victory, a record margin in the Sprint. Though he finished second in the Cigar Mile a month later, the effort was enough to make him a nearly unanimous choice for champion sprinter of 2007.
2007 BREEDERS' CUP SPRINT

Video courtesy of Breeders' Cup World Championships
Midnight Lute was readied for the Palos Verdes in January 2008, but he was shelved again after a minor injury. He reappeared at Del Mar for the Pat O’Brien Handicap but made the worst showing of his career — a 10th-place finish as the heavy favorite. Blaming the effort on a grabbed quarter at the start of the race, Baffert was optimistic as Midnight Lute headed into the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Sprint as a leading contender.
When the gates sprung open the horse dropped to the back of the pack where he awaited his cue to begin his patented late run. He began picking up horses with just over two furlongs remaining, and in early stretch he had just one foe to catch. Midnight Lute did it in the final furlong, drawing off to another open-lengths victory to become the first horse to win two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
2008 BREEDERS' CUP SPRINT

Video courtesy of Breeders' Cup World Championships
After the 2008 racing season Midnight Lute headed to Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm to begin his stud career. Breeders appreciated his speed and pedigree, and the horse was popular from the start with 121 foals in his first crop.
That crop included multiple graded stakes winners Midnight Lucky and Shakin It Up, Sunland Derby winner Govenor Charlie, Queen’s Plate winner Midnight Aria and Preakness third-place finisher Mylute. Those horses propelled him into second-place on the 2013 second-crop sire list, and he currently ranks second on the third-crop sire list with five graded stakes winners this year. Midnight Lute’s co-owner Mike Pegram has been a big supporter of his stallion, sending champion Silverbulletday and others to be bred to Midnight Lute and purchasing his offspring to race.
MIDNIGHT LUTE'S MIDNIGHT LUCKY WINS THE 2014 HUMANA DISTAFF

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
Midnight Lute overcame breathing problems and injury on his journey to become a two-time Breeders’ Cup champion. His 4 ¾-length margin of victory in the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Sprint and time of 1:07.08 in the 2008 edition are records that still have not been surpassed. He also remains the only horse to have won the Breeders’ Cup Sprint twice, and he was named champion sprinter in 2007 and was a finalist in 2008. Baffert has trained three colts that nearly won the Triple Crown and 11 champions, yet he calls Midnight Lute the best horse he's ever trained. Already with horses like Midnight Lucky, Shakin It Up and Midnight Hawk on the track, Midnight Lute appears headed toward a similarly successful career at stud.