
Midnight Lute Videos
Midnight Lute (foaled May 13, 2003 in Versailles, Kentucky) is an American Thoroughbred stallion racehorse. He is owned by Michael E. Pegram and Watson and Weitman Performance, LLC, and was named for Lute Olson, the University of Arizona basketball coach.
Bred by Tom Evans, Macon Wilmil Equines & Marjac Farms, Inc., he was sired by the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner Real Quiet and out of the mare Candytuft. His damsire is Dehere, a multiple stakes winner and the 1993 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt. He was sold as a yearling for $70,000 at the Keeneland September sales.
Trained by three-time Kentucky Derby winner, Bob Baffert, Midnight Lute won the Grade 3 Perryville Stakes at Keeneland Race Course
on October 13, 2006 in track record time. He collected his first Grade
1 win on September 1, 2007 while setting a new stakes record in the Forego Handicap at Saratoga Race Course. In that race he earned 2007s highest Beyer Speed Figure of 124.
He has also placed in several Graded stakes including the Malibu Stakes (3rd, Grade 1) and the San Fernando Stakes (2nd , Grade 2) at Santa Anita Park.
On October 27, 2007, Midnight Lute scored the most important victory of his career when he won the six-furlong Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Monmouth Park, ridden by Garrett Gomez.
Coming from last to first, he won by 4 3/4 lengths over a sloppy track
in a time of 1:09.18, with Idiot Proof second and Talent Search third.
An injury kept him away from the races for most of the 2008 season.
In his first start of the year, he finished an unimpressive 10th in the
Pat O’Brien Handicap at Del Mar Racetrack. His second start was the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Santa Anita Park
on October 25th. He finished the six furlong dash in a final time of
1:07:08 on a fast track. Fatal Bullet ran second with Street Boss
third. With that win, Midnight Lute became the first horse to ever
repeat in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.
On October 28th it was announced that Midnight Lute would be retired
to stand stud at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in Kentucky for an initial fee of
$20,000.
Midnight Lute is a finalist for the Eclipse Award‘s American Champion Sprint Horse for 2008. If he wins, it will his second sprint award in a row.

