Breeders' Cup Legends: Miesque

Miesque wins her second consecutive Breeders' Cup Mile in 1988. (Photo by HorsePhotos)
Rarely do top-class race mares duplicate their efforts as broodmares. The odds are simply stacked against such a feat. It has been done, though, and if one were to rank mares who were the best in both careers, Miesque would undoubtedly be near the top of that list. She won 10 Grade or Group 1 races including two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Mile, and her first two foals were classic winners.
Miesque herself was a daughter of the great Nureyev, out of the Prove Out mare Pasadoble. Pasadoble was a stakes winner but her first foal, born in 1984 and named Miesque, was her crowning achievement. Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos bred and raced the filly under his Flaxman Holdings banner. He chose Frenchman Francois Boutin to train her and her career was very much an international one.
Miesque ran in 16 races in her three seasons on the track. She won 12 of them and never finished worse than third. Fourteen of her races were against Grade or Group 1 competition, and she collected 10 wins, three seconds and a third from her top-tier efforts.
The bay filly began her career with three wins in four starts, including wins over males in the Group 1 Prix de la Salamandre and the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac. Her performance earned her champion 2-year-old honors in France.
Miesque’s sophomore season included victories in the French and English One Thousand Guineas and the open-company Prix Jacques Le Marois and Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. She finished second in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot before making a 5,000 mile journey to southern California in the autumn of 1987.
November 21 would turn out to be a momentous day for Miesque and her human connections. The filly skimmed the rail in a ground-saving trip in the 1987 Breeders’ Cup Mile, and jockey Freddie Head managed to guide her through a hole on the inside at the top of the stretch. Miesque used her devastating turn of foot to demoralize her competition, quickly opening up to win by daylight in her American debut. Head called her the best he’s ever ridden after her display of talent and tenacity at Hollywood Park that day.
1987 BREEDERS' CUP MILE

Video courtesy of Breeders' Cup World Championships
In her first three starts as a 4-year-old, Miesque notched two Group 1 triumphs and finished second in a third before traveling across the pond to defend her title in the Breeders’ Cup Mile. Though the 1987 Mile was run on a firm, dry California turf course, the 1988 edition would present a different challenge for the filly on a cool, damp day at Churchill Downs.
Miesque circled the course on the outside, traveling wide around both turns while sitting mid-pack. She ran past dueling Steinlen, a future Breeders’ Cup Mile winner himself, and Simply Majestic in mid-stretch and swept to an impressive 4-length victory to become the first Thoroughbred to win two consecutive Breeders’ Cup races.
1988 BREEDERS' CUP MILE

Video courtesy of Breeders' Cup World Championships
Miesque was named champion female turf horse in the United States in 1987 and 1988 along with a bevy of European awards both years. She took her place in the U.S. National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame in 1999.
Miesque was retired to the breeding shed after the 1988 Mile and she first paid a visit to leading sire Mr. Prospector. Kingmambo was the resulting foal born in 1990. Like his dam, Kingmambo was a homebred for Stavros Niarchos and raced in France and England. The colt won the St. James’s Palace, the French Two Thousand Guineas and the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp in a stellar career.
Kingmambo retired to stud at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky and became a leading international sire with Belmont Stakes winner Lemon Drop Kid and Two Thousand Guineas winners King’s Best and Henrythenavigator to his credit. His sons King’s Best, King Kamehameha, and Lemon Drop Kid have also emerged as high-class sires themselves.
HENRYTHENAVIGATOR TRAINS AHEAD OF 2008 BREEDERS' CUP CLASSIC

Photo by Eclipse Sportswire
The second foal out of Miesque was similarly outstanding. East of the Moon, a filly by Private Account, emulated her mother in winning the French One Thousand Guineas and added a second French classic when winning the Prix de Diane. East of the Moon won a third Group 1, and was second in an additional Group 1 and a Group 3 during her eight-race career.
Miesque’s other foals did not live up to the classic-winning precedence set by Kingmambo and East of the Moon, but two were Group 3 winners and another a stakes winner. Her influence has endured through further generations, as her Group 3 winner Miesque’s Son sired Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Miesque’s Approval and her daughter Monevassia foaled eventual champion Rumplestiltskin among other notable family members. Rumplestiltskin, in turn, has produced 2014 Yorkshire Oaks (Group 1) winner Tapestry.
As important as they are, two Breeders’ Cup Mile wins were but another item on Miesque’s long list of racing achievements. With ten Grade or Group 1 wins and a host of championships to her credit, she headed to the breeding shed with high expectations and did not disappoint. Miesque passed away on January 20, 2011 but her legacy lives on in the likes of sires and dams like Lemon Drop Kid, Miesque’s Approval and Rumplestiltskin.