Midnight Current debuted on this date five years ago at Canterbury Park and would become one of the surest bets on turf in Minnesota.
But the ride ends Saturday night, as the decorated mare is scheduled to be retired following a start in the track’s $50,000 Princess Elaine, according to trainer Joel Berndt.
Midnight Current will be looking to win the 1 1/16-mile turf race for fillies and mares for the third time in her career. It’s one of six divisional Minnesota-bred stakes on the card, with the races worth a cumulative $350,000 for the annual Minnesota Festival of Champions.
Midnight Current launched her career in a 4 1/2-furlong maiden special weight sprint on Aug. 31, 2020. She ran second in the main-track race, won next time out on dirt, and would go on to compile an 11-for-15 record on the turf at Canterbury.
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Midnight Current was the 2022 horse of the meet at Canterbury and will be honored as the 2023 older female by the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association during a presentation before the third race Saturday, according to the MTA.
For Berndt, it’s been a pleasure watching Midnight Current, who at one point in her career won six straight races over the local lawn, develop from a baby to the barn’s big mare.
“Seeing her as a 2-year-old break her maiden on dirt going short – going from a little scrawny 2-year-old with boogers in her nose and still trying to just finding a surface she loved, adored, and being this model of consistency, that’s really cool,” Berndt said. “She’s a big, strong, mature mare now and she knows her job.”
Midnight Current is one of the gems of the breeding program of the late Bob Lothenbach, who raced the mare for most of her career until she was sold following his death last year. She now races for Runnymoore Racing.
“The owners had a plan of just campaigning her through this meet, and you know, it’s the final stakes for Minnesota-breds, and so, this is it,” Berndt said. “We’d like to go out a winner. I like the mile-and-a-sixteenth distance for her. She’s 3 for 3 at a mile and a sixteenth.”
Berndt said his barn has sadly been counting down the days to Midnight Current’s retirement, especially groom Greg Pena.
“He’s rubbed her since she was 2,” Berndt said. “It’s bittersweet.”
Lothenbach’s brothers plan to be in attendance for the races Saturday, Berndt said.
Sprint Championship
Berndt has several other runners on the card, including the unbeaten Street Warrior. He’s won his three starts by a combined margin of 31 lengths, and the 3-year-old will take on older runners for the first time in the $50,000 Minnesota Sprint Championship.
“That should be the test of the summer for him,” Berndt said.
The field of six includes multiple stakes winner Thealligatorhunter and Distinctive Pro, who owns some of the field’s best recent Beyer Speed Figures.
The front-running Street Warrior will be cutting back to six furlongs after winning over one mile and 70 yards last out in the Minnesota Derby.
“I was very pleased, not surprised,” Berndt said. “You know you worry about if he finishes well because he’s never been that far, but he handled it mentally very well. When they went the half in 48 [seconds], he should be able to cruise home from there and he did. It was a really a nice race.”
Berndt said new challenges await Saturday.
“The unknown is when he gets under pressure, going long or short, what would he do?” he said. “He’s had three races that he’s won with ease, but the true test is if he got challenged early or a strong closer would come at him, what would he do?
“These are the things we’re going to have to learn going forward. When you go into a race like we’re going in Saturday, with horses like Thealligatorhunter who has 13 wins and is an older, seasoned horse, that’s a big jump for a young horse that’s only run three times. We’re really looking forward to this, to see if he gets challenged, what will he do? How will he respond?”
Blair’s Cove
It’s Bobs Business is starting to build a turf résumé and will represent co-owner Berndt in the $50,000 Blair’s Cove, a 1 1/16-mile turf race for 3-year-olds and up. It’s Bobs Business previously raced for his breeder, Lothenbach. A stakes winner on dirt at 2, the son of Bolt d’Oro is now 4 and looking for his second turf win of the meet at Canterbury.
“We turned him out for the winter and he came back a different horse,” Berndt said. “His half-brother loved the turf, an older brother, so I said, ‘Let me try this.’ He took to the turf. I think that’s going to be his strong suit going forward. We’re really hoping for firm turf, kind of hoping for a tennis court.”
It’s Bobs Business won the Northern Lights Futurity in 2022, and the $75,000 race will be the first Thoroughbred stakes of the night run Saturday. The $75,000 Northern Lights Debutante is for 2-year-old fillies, and it also is carded for Saturday.
◗ The $50,000 Minnesota Distaff Sprint Championship has drawn six, led by the Mac Robertson-trained Xtreme Diva.
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