Goldikova is out to make Breeders' Cup history next week - but Ben Linfoot remembers another super mare from France.
Miesque's 1988 Breeders' Cup Mile
Freddie Head could make history at Churchill Downs all over again if his wonder mare Goldikova becomes the first horse to win three Breeders' Cup titles. For 22 years ago he steered another fantastic mare, Miesque, to victory in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Louisville. Following on from her sensational win at Hollywood Park the previous year, she became the first horse to win back-to-back Breeders' Cup championships.
Trainer Francois Boutin was not a stranger to making history. In 1977 his horse Sagaro became the first to win the Ascot Gold Cup three years in a row and the late seventies and early eighties proved to be a golden period for the farmer's son, as he was leading trainer in France seven times between 1976 and 1984. His other great Breeders' Cup winner, Arazi, came much later in his career in 1991.
Miesque was born in Kentucky in 1984. By the champion sire Nureyev, great things were expected of the Stavros Niarchos-owned filly and she quickly proved herself as a top-class racehorse, winning three out of her four races as a juvenile. Indeed, she was the champion two-year-old in France in 1986 after winning two prestigious Group One races, the Prix De La Salamandre and the Prix Marcel Boussac.
Her three-year-old career really kicked off when she won the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket and she added the Poule d'Essai de Pouliches and Prix de Moulin de Longchamp to that record.
Best yet to come
Yet the best was yet to come in the Breeders' Cup at Hollywood Park, when a paint-scraping rail ride from Head helped her to a dominating five-length success in track-record time against the best the Americans had to offer.
That was her eighth race as a three-year-old, but she had a much lighter campaign at four. Racing just four times, she won the Prix d'Ispahan at Longchamp and the Prix Jacques le Marois, at Deauville, for the second time. At Deauville she gave Guy Harwood's Warning 4lbs and a one-length beating, but the Khalid Abdullah-owned horse improved on his next start, storming to an easy five-length success in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot.
The allowance for three-year-olds and fillies was 3lbs back in 1988, as it is today, so Warning and the year-older Miesque ran off level weights at Churchill Downs, both carrying 8-11. Despite this, it was Warning who was sent off as favourite at 19-10, with Miesque only slightly bigger at 2-1. The strongest American challenger, in the betting at least, was the Belmont Stakes winner Bet Twice, a son of Sportin' Life.
Versatile in terms of ground
Though Miesque had proven herself on all sorts of ground, the going was much easier than her previous Breeders' Cup victory on very fast turf at Hollywood Park. Perhaps given the conditions you'd expect another energy-saving rail ride from Head, but the French jockey must've been supremely confident as he chartered a course out wide this time. 10 lengths off the lead and three-horse widths wide rounding the first turn, Miesque would have to win this renewal down the outside.
Miesque soon made headway and tagged onto the back of the breakaway group of six approaching the final turn, before really going into overdrive just as it looked as if Simply Majestic and Niccolo Polo might have the finish to themselves. Head drove his horse into a close third at the top of the stretch before sweeping past the aforementioned American duo who couldn't match the French filly's majestic turn of foot. She took it up at the furlong pole and soon put the race to bed, Head's raised fist signalling a compelling four-length success.
Legacy as broodmare too
Retired at the end of the 1988 season, Miesque raced 16 times, won 12, finished second three times and third once. Her greatest gift to the breeding industry as a broodmare was her son Kingmambo, a Classic winner himself who also won the St James's Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot before making his own impact at stud, siring King's Best and Henrythenavigator among others.
Her Breeders' Cup legacy already cemented, that of her jockey isn't quite confined to the record books yet. Head became the first man to win Breeders' Cup races as a jockey and a trainer when Goldikova won her first Mile in 2008, and few would bet against him becoming the first handler to train one horse to three consecutive Breeders' Cup championships.
Of course John Shireffs is going for a three-timer with Zenyatta as well, but Goldikova will have already won by then...
