Champion sprinter Midnight Lute got off the mark as a sire when Prohibiting
justified 6-5 favoritism in Saturday’s
2ND
race at Hastings. Bet down to 6-5 favoritism in his third start, the Troy Taylor
trainee rallied to prevail by a half-length. Fernando Perez guided the bay
gelding through about six furlongs in 1:12 3/5 on the fast track.
Bred by Mark Secrest and Gary Anderson in Kentucky, Prohibiting was purchased
for $30,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale and currently races for
Robert Marjanovich. He is out of the winning Tabasco Cat mare Blazing Cat.
Midnight Lute, the only two-time winner of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint,
bankrolled $2,690,600 from a record of 13-6-3-1. Voted champion sprinter after
his initial success in 2007, the son of Real Quiet also claims victories in the
Grade 1 Forego and Grade 3 Perryville and placings in the Grade 1 Cigar Mile
Handicap, Grade 1 Malibu and Grade 2 San Fernando.
Out of the unraced Dehere mare Candytuft, Midnight Lute is a half-brother to
multiple Grade 2-placed sprinter Captain Cherokee. This is the family of such
major European performers as Alydar’s Best and Gyr.
The nine-year-old Midnight Lute stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms near Lexington,
Kentucky, for $15,000, stands and nurses.