As the famous Californian venue prepares to host the Breeders’ Cup for a record 11th time, Jay Hovdey recalls the two-time Turf Sprint winner who thrived on the track’s idiosyncratic downhill chute
Versatility is overrated. Long resumés are a bore. Give me that artist who does one thing better than anyone else, time after time, in a climate of increasing pressure and public scrutiny. By such unique individuals we can set our clocks, marking time in terms of the days, weeks, and months they walk among us. Or ran.
Mizdirection was such an artist, of the Thoroughbred variety, whose canvas was a tract of land in the San Gabriel Valley east of downtown Los Angeles upon which she painted a series of modern masterpieces.
With another Breeders’ Cup scheduled for Nov. 3 and 4 at Santa Anita Park, Mizdirection’s back-to-back victories in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint from a decade ago should be among the best moments recollected from the ten global festivals already offered at the historic track.
As with most compelling legends, Mizdirection’s origin story was unassuming and for the most part anonymous. Bred in Kentucky by Joseph Perrotta, she first went to market in 2009 at the Keeneland yearling sale, where she caught the eye of Alex Solis Jr., and his partner in bloodstock, Jason Litt. They bought her for $85,000 on behalf of a client who, barely six months later, decided he wanted to sell. The venue was the Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale in May of 2010.
“She was kind of rushed to make the Maryland sale,” Solis said. “But she did work in 10-and-3, on the wrong lead, and looked pretty good doing it. Then on the morning of the sale she got cast in her stall.”
Any buzz being generated by the filly died to a whisper. Solis and Litt ended up buying her again, this time for $50,000, and sent her to trainer Mike Puype in California.
“We were hoping that whatever she may have injured getting cast could be dealt with,” Solis said. “It ended up being ligaments in a knee, and it took her quite a while to get right. Mike didn’t work her for the first time until October.
Lights out
“By December she was working lights out,” Solis said. “Then what happens? She gets cast again. Fortunately, she was able to make it to the races in February, and Mike thought she could win first time out.”
She did not, but Mizdirection did finish second at odds of 21-1. The filly who beat her, Home Sweet Aspen, went on to become a G1 stakes winner. After that, Mizdirection spent the rest of her career on the grass, starting with a maiden win by 11½ lengths at six furlongs on the Hollywood Park turf. The date was May 8, 2011, and Jim Rome noticed.
At the time, Rome had risen to the top of the sportstalk world, with a presence on both nationwide radio and high-profile cable TV. Currently, his syndicated show rolls Monday through Friday on the CBS Radio network.
Rome's rat-a-tat, Walter Winchell-style of delivery laced with catchy nicknames and sharpened barbs emanates from what his listeners had come to know as ‘The Jungle’, with all carnivorous implications attached. If you enter Rome’s multi-media thicket, you need to come armed with unassailable facts or large-calibre attitude. Preferably both.
Rome was also an investor as a Thoroughbred owner, primarily in partnerships, although success, to that point, had been elusive.
In love with the sport
“We’d got into the game, fell in love with the sport, and fell in love with the animals,” said Rome, who was inspired by his wife, Janet, to give ownership a try.
“But I was haemorrhaging money. Never mind winning a stakes race,” he went on. “We couldn’t even get in a stakes race. At that point we had to make a decision. Janet asked how long we were willing to keep at it. I told her she was the one who wanted me to get a hobby. She said yes, but not a hobby this expensive.”
Rome’s recites the exchange like an episode of The Honeymooners, but the clock was ticking for real. He asked Puype about the filly with the massive maiden score and was told a majority piece of her was up for sale. Did he want in?
“I told my wife, ‘Janet, we’ve got one more shot,’” Rome said.
Swish.
Over the next three seasons, Mizdirection took Rome’s Jungle Racing stable and his partners on a wild and giddy ride.
Puype spent the remainder of her three-year-old campaign sorting through Mizdirection’s various talents – second in the San Clemente at a mile on the Del Mar turf, third in the Raven Run at seven furlongs on the Keeneland all-weather – until she cruised home in an allowance sprint on the Hollywood grass in December to set the table for her four-year-old campaign.
No stranger to good horses
Mike Puype was no stranger to good horses. A disciple of the respected Walter Greenman, Puype (pronounced ‘PIPE-ee’) trained privately for Cobra Golf’s Gary Biszantz in the 1990s and won major trophies with Lord Grillo, Old Trieste and Cobra King. When Mizdirection arrived, she joined a public stable that was led by fellow three-year-old filly Turbulent Descent, winner in 2011 of the Santa Anita Oaks, Beaumont Stakes at Keeneland, and Test Stakes at Saratoga. By contrast, Mizdirection’s destiny was not so direct.
“It took a little time to figure out what her niche was,” Puype said. “Once we did, we knew sprints on the turf for fillies were sparse. You had to be ready whenever they came up, and she had that ability. I mean, she won both her Breeders’ Cup races off a five-month layoff! I don’t think any horse will ever do that again.
“I can’t take any credit, though,” Puype added. “She was doing all the work. One thing about her, too, is that no matter what kind of trip she had – way back, mid-pack, wherever – she really knew where to go and how to put it down when it mattered most. She was that incredible. And Mike's rides were crystal clear, perfect in both those Breeders' Cup races.”
Puype was referring to the other Mike in the mix, that man Smith, who holds the Breeders’ Cup record entering the 2023 festival with 27 winners. Garrett Gomez, David Flores, and Chantal Sutherland were also aboard Mizdirection at one time or another, but it is Mike Smith with whom she is most closely associated. “On the grass with her at Santa Anita, he never lost,” Puype said.
Lopsided star and a trickle of a blaze
Mizdirection was foaled in Kentucky on April 19, 2008. She sported the beginnings of an iron gray coat with subtle roan highlights, a shade-in leaning into the line of Caro, through his son Cozzene, to his son Mizzen Mast, the sire of Mizdirection. As she grew, her markings revealed a lopsided star and trickle of a blaze, a starburst of white on her right hip, and a distinctive cluster of white at the base of her tail.
The female family of Mizdirection traces to Sunny Dame, a daughter of Damascus foaled in 1970. Sunny Dame’s daughter, Sul
try Sun, produced the millionaire half-brothers Solar Splendor and Sultry Song. Another daughter, Lien, produced a couple of minor stakes winners in addition to Limbus, the granddam of Deceptive, born in 1999.
Deceptive's sire was Clever Trick, a classy customer who won significant stakes at ages two, three, and four. His top earner was Anet, winner of the Del Mar Derby, but his most notable offspring was Phone Trick, a world-class sprinter who went on to a stallion career that did his sire proud.
As a racehorse, Deceptive could be described as earnest. She ran 20 times without winning for her breeder, who trained her as well. In one tantalizing stretch between late 2002 and June of 2003, Deceptive finished second in five of six starts. Mizdirection was her fourth foal.
For his part, Mizzen Mast had abundant class and the speed to match, although he turned out to be no more than a bright flash in the pan for Bobby Frankel and owner-breeder Juddmonte Farm.
After commencing his career with Criquette Head, Mizzen Mast’s victories at Santa Anita in the Malibu Stakes at the end of 2001 and the Strub Stakes in early 2002 whetted the appetite for great things to come. Chronic infirmities intervened, however, and he was retired after five wins from 11 starts divided between California and Europe.
Popular commodity
At stud, Mizzen Mast proved a popular commodity at Juddmonte’s Kentucky operation, where he served until pensioned in 2021. His best sons included Hollywood Gold Cup winner Mast Track, Whittingham Memorial winner Midships, and Ultimate Eagle, who complimented his sire by winning the Strub.
As for his fillies, Mizdirection was hardly a fluke. On the same day she won her first Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Mizzen Mast’s daughter Flotilla took the Juvenile Fillies Turf. And when the Breeders’ Cup circus reconvenes at Santa Anita, Mizzen Mast's daughter Caravel will try to emulate Mizdirection by winning her second straight Turf Sprint after taking the race in 2022 at Keeneland.
There will be a difference. In its wisdom, Breeders’ Cup management decided to shift the Santa Anita version of the Turf Sprint from 6½ furlongs down the hillside course to a flat five furlongs around one tight turn.
Each of the previous seven Turf Sprints run at Santa Anita – including Mizdirection’s double – came careening down the hill, offering unique entertainment for horseplayers and fans and a challenge for invading horses and riders.
In the 70 years since the hillside course was unveiled, there have been a series of horses who have taken to the tricky layout like Michael Phelps to water.
Honor of rare distinction
They’ve had names like Century’s Envoy, Matching, Impressive Luck, Irish O’Brien, and Cambiocorsa – all of them nimble, athletic creatures who could turn right, turn left, track uphill and down, cross over a dirt patch and then finish like the wind. To be referred to as a ‘hill horse’ is an honor of rare distinction.
Mike Smith insists that the nature of the course made Mizdirection a better racehorse. “Early on in her career she could be pretty aggressive,” Smith said. “Turning left, turning right, crossing the dirt – all that taught her to relax and let go a little bit. She didn’t need to have the lead anymore and could come from anywhere.”
Crossing the strip of main track separating the hillside portion of the course from the main turf oval can cause a wary horse to balked or lose momentum. Not so with Mizdirection.
“She’d never miss a step,” Smith said. “Never stutter-step or anything. Horses can lose a length if they don’t cross that clean. She was so smoothe she’d pick up a length.”
Mizdirection made her hillside course debut on Jan. 2, 2012, in the Monrovia Stakes. She was well bet but aligned against Unzip Me, a California mare whose seven wins over the course represented the all-time mark.
“Unzip Me was the unquestioned Queen of the Hill,” Jim Rome said. “Then here comes Miz, making that big, wide turn and finishing like a freight train to win. I was sky high. We’d never won a graded stakes before. I remember walking back to my car, and some guy yells, ‘Rome! Rome! You have the new Queen of the Hill!’ I just got chills.”
Mizdirection’s reign had begun. In nine more starts, spaced over the following 22 months, she raced six more times down the hill and won all six. Mizdirection alone was responsible for elevating the Monrovia from a G3 to a G2 event, and promoting the hillside’s Las Cienegas Stakes from a Listed race to the company of graded events. She won both races twice.
“It’s very hard for any horse to be flawless on the hill,” Puype said. “Things happen; it’s easy to get out of position. You put the same group of horses together five times and you’ll probably get three or four different results.”
Mizdirection’s back-to-back Breeders’ Cup wins places her in a group of 19 horses who have won the same event at least twice. Among those in her wake in the 2012 Turf Sprint were defending champ California Flag, the multi-stakes ace Bridgetown, sharp cou
rse winner Unbridled’s Note, and Starspangledbanner, champion sprinter of both Europe and Australia.
“I watched the race standing next to Alex Solis,” Rome said. “Here she was in her first Grade 1 race, first time running against the boys. She’s so far back I said, ‘Oh, no. She’s backing up!’
‘At least this isn’t going to be embarassing’
“But Alex says, ‘No, look, she’s coming.’ So I’m thinking, ‘Well, at least this isn’t going to be embarrassing. Maybe she could even hit the board.’ Then she gets up to win – the Breeders’ Cup! To this day, beyond my wedding day and the birth of my boys, it was the single most surreal moment in my life.”
In 2013, Europeans stayed away from the Turf Sprint in droves, leaving Mizdirection to handle a tough bunch of domestics that included fellow hill specialists Reneesgotzip and Chips All In, Woodford and Shakertown Stakes winner Havelock, and Unbridled’s Note, second in 2012. Mizdirection’s half-length victory was conclusive, but getting her there was not easy.
Mizdirection had not run since her New York foray the previous June when she finished fifth in the Just A Game Stakes at Belmont Park, on the supporting Belmont Stakes program.
A storm had turned the course to a yielding bog, underlined by the winner’s final time for the mile of 1:36.27, some 15 lengths slower than Mizdirection’s winning time in the Buena Vista Stakes at Santa Anita earlier in the year. She returned to California in one piece and went back to the track, but then Puype had to tap the brakes.
“That knee she hurt as a two-year-old would come back to haunt her,” Alex Solis said. “For Mike to get her ready for the Breeders’ Cup off breaks like that was pretty incredible.”
In the decade since the 2013 Breeders’ Cup, Rome has enjoyed success with the champion two-year-old Shared Belief, winner also of the Pacific Classic and Santa Anita Handicap, along with a couple of minor stakes winners. Yet Mizdirection remains the racehorse closest to his heart.
‘I love her, man I love her’
“When she walked into that winner’s circle with the Breeders’ Cup flowers draped over her, I was never so proud,” Rome said. “Alex would ask me, ‘Dude, why are you always kissing that horse?’ Because I love her, man. I love her.”
And then he sold her.
Before her second Turf Sprint date, Mizdirection was catalogued for the glamorous Fasig-Tipton Mixed Sale set for Nov. 2 in Lexington, two days after the Breeders’ Cup. Already a pearl of great price, her victory sent her sale soaring to $2.7 million to go along with her earnings of $1.7 million for Rome and his partners – Bill Strauss, Danny Grohs, Boris Beljack, Kevin Nish, and Michael Kramek. The buyer was Sheikh Joaan Al Thani’s Al Shaqab Racing of Qatar.
“Better to go too early than stay too long,” said Rome, who had seen plenty of human athletes violate that creed. “I wanted her to walk off as a two-time Breeders’ Cup champion. As far as selling her, she deserved to have a chance to be a mama. And remember, racing is not only a bet, it’s a business. Her sale only enhanced her mystique.”
Mizdirection has so far produced four named foals in Europe, including a current two-year-old by Lope De Vega. They have yet to distinguish themselves, although none have tried the hillside course at Santa Anita. But no matter what she does as a broodmare, Mizdirection’s legacy is secure as a racehorse of rare ability.
“It’s a misconception in this game about what we do for them versus what they do for us.” Puype said. “She was one of a kind, a pleasure to be around. With a horse like her, you just step back and have a lot of confidence, because a good horse makes us all look good.”
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