The family comes in various shades of gray, colts and fillies, each successive generation building on the tenacity and talent of the previous one. From Caro comes a Derby winner (Winning Colors), standout sires (Cozzene), Hall of Famers (Arrogate), and Breeders’ Cup champions including Classic victor Alphabet Soup and a two-time Turf Sprint conqueror in the racemare Mizdirection.

Though it took time for her to find her specialty, once Mizdirection did she made the most of it, and in the process, became the apple of her owner’s eye.

Bad Luck, But Good Fortune

Bred and owned by Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, Mizzen Mast spent the first 11 months of his racing career in France, where he won his debut as a 2-year-old in 2000 and took the Group 3 Prix de Guiche at age 3 before crossing the Atlantic and joining the barn of Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel in California.

Two-time Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint winner Mizdirection (Eclipse Sportswire)

There, the gray son of Cozzene won the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes and Grade 2 Strub Stakes before retiring to stud duty. In his time at Juddmonte’s Kentucky division, he sired the likes of Flotilla, winner of the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and the 2013 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches (French One Thousand Guineas); Caravel, the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint victor; and a dark gray turf specialist named Mizdirection.

Mizdirection dam, Deceptive, raced primarily in Maryland for owner-breeder Joseph Perrotta, racing 20 times without a win but finishing in the money in 11 of her starts. For her fourth mating, Perrotta chose Mizzen Mast, and on April 19, 2008, Deceptive foaled an iron-gray filly with a diamond-shaped splotch of white (typically called a star) that narrowed to a thin line of white trickling down to her nose. Perrotta sent her to the Keeneland September yearling yale, where she hammered down to Alex Solis Jr. and partner Jason Litt for $85,000.

The following May, she was entered in the Fasig-Tipton Midatlantic 2-year-olds In training sale, but despite her impressive showing in the breeze-up show, Solis and Litt had to buy her back for $50,000 after she got cast – or caught too close to the wall of her stall and thus was unable to get up – and all interest in her dried up because of the worry that she may have injured herself during the incident. Mizdirection was once again their filly, so they sent her out to California and the barn of Mike Puype.

Welcome to the Jungle

Mizdirection came out of her stall incident with some knee ligament issues, so Puype took his time with her and she didn’t have a timed workout until October 2010. As she prepared for her debut, Mizdirection got cast again and her racing career was again delayed.

Jim Rome with Mizdirection after Sandy Blue Stakes win. (Eclipse Sportswire)

Finally, she took the track for the first time in March 2011, finishing second in a 5 ½-furlong maiden special weight race on the main track at Santa Anita Park. She broke her maiden in her next start, taking a six-furlong turf race by a whopping 11 ½ lengths. It was clear that the daughter of Mizzen Mast would excel on the turf so Puype would keep her primarily on that surface for the rest of her career. That eye-opening win also brought Mizdirection another new opportunity.

Jim Rome and his Jungle Racing Stable had been looking for an opportunity to resuscitate their fledgling foray into racehorse ownership. Their venture had not been as successful as the sports radio host had hoped and they needed a win to keep going. After Mizdirection’s blowout maiden win, he and co-owners Tom Lenner, Alan Peterson, Robert Strauss, and Mic Kramek were taken on quite a ride.

Puype sent her out in stakes company for her next two starts, trying the Manhattan Beach Stakes at six furlongs and then the one-mile, Grade 2 San Clemente Handicap, finishing second both times. Mizdirection got her first stakes win in the Sandy Blue Handicap going a mile on the grass at Del Mar and then finished third in the Grade 2 Raven Run Stakes on the all-weather surface at Keeneland before rounding out her 3-year-old season with an allowance win back on turf at Hollywood Park. With one season of racing under her belt, the Mizzen Mast filly was just getting started.

Thrills and Chills

For the next two seasons, Mizdirection took Mike Puype, Jim Rome, and everyone associated with her for the ride of their lives. She started with the Grade 3 Monrovia Stakes on the downhill turf course at Santa Anita and then added the Clocker’s Corner Handicap and the Las Cienegas Handicap, both on the same surface, demonstrating the filly’s adeptness at handling the unique course. She added a second in the Great Lady M Stakes at Hollywood Park before taking an extended break leading up to the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, which happened to be at Santa Anita that year.

The full field of 14 also included Australian and European Group 1 winner Starspangledbanner, but they were all no match for the Mizdirection and her ability to handle Santa Anita’s downhill course. With Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith in the saddle, she bided her time early, racing in 11^th place through a half-mile, and then went wide coming into the stretch, passing horses on the outside and charging into the lead in the race’s waning yards. It was the first Breeders’ Cup win for Puype, Rome, and partners. Even better, Mizdirection was coming back for more.

In her final season on the racetrack, the talented daughter of Mizzen Mast started 2013 with another winning turn in the Monrovia and then won the Grade 2 Buena Vista and the Grade 3 Las Cienagas, all on Santa Anita’s downhill turf course, before heading east to Belmont Park for the Grade 1 Just a Game Stakes. There, she ran into a yielding course while stretching out to a mile and met defeat for the first time that season. Puype then trained her up to another Breeders’ Cup bid at Santa Anita, where once again she would face a full field.

Unbridled’s Note, the 2012 runner-up, was back but none of the horses that lined up against her was any match for Mizdirection. She stayed just off the leaders early, went wide on the turn, and then used her customary late turn of foot to win her second Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint by a half-length.  It was the final race of a stellar career, one that had resuscitated Jim Rome’s racing ambitions. After her win, Rome told the Louisville Courier-Journal’s Greg Hall, “While I’m paid to be objective, I have no problem saying my favorite athlete ever is a 5-year [old], four-legged female, who is walking off as a two-time world champion. Viva La Miz!”

A Second Career Abroad

Two days after proving once again that she was the queen of Santa Anita’s downhill turf course, the steel gray mare went through the auction ring at the Fasig-Tipton November sale. What might have looked like a surprising decision for someone like Jim Rome, who had fallen in love with his two-time Breeders’ Cup winner, her trip through the sales ring was a necessary choice: “The Miz ride has been one of the great experiences of my life, but I wanted to see her go out a champion. I wanted her off the track. I wanted her to have a good life as a mama, and I think the time is right to sell,” Rome said. “It’s gut-wrenching. It’s tearing me up, but from a business standpoint, and this is a business, it’s something we need to do.”

Mizdirection sold for $2.7 million at the 2013 November sale to Al Shaqab Racing of Qatar. She retired to broodmare life in Europe, producing winners by Olympic Glory, Lope de Vega, and Mehmas. Maybe one day soon, a racehorse produced by Mizdirection will wear their dam’s purple and gold crown.