Midnight Crossing ran a very strong 3rd last weekend in the Osunitas Stakes at Del Mar. Here is a VIDEO replay of the race.
She broke well, but was wide exiting the chute onto the main track. Corey Nakatani had a tough decision at this point. He could either send her towards the lead to try and avoid going wide, or settle her further back and saving some ground. He took the latter of the options, and ended up settling in 5th place, about 8 lengths off the lead. This was much further back then she has been in any of her starts, and I was a little worried with what kind of challenge she could mount. Corey started to ask her with 3/8ths of a mile to run, and she slowly got into stride without making any real progress. Once she got into the stretch she started to grind them down, and made progress after he shifted her to the outside. She made up ground on the first 4, and eventually worked her way into 3rd.
Midnight Crossing seems to be improving with the subtraction of blinkers. In previous races she has been unable to pass horses, but this race she passed a couple in the stretch, and finished faster than any of the closers. Corey thinks she will do better if she is a little closer to the pace, but there was nothing he could do with the outside post position. Richard also thinks she will improve from the race. They said she was breathing pretty hard from the race, and might improve from a fitness perspective. She is a very robust filly, and this race could tighten her up. She received an 89 beyer for this start. She came out of the race well, and at this point we will point to the G2 John C Mabee on September 1 at Del Mar.
