Miesque, the first two-time winner of a Breeders’ Cup race and the dam of top sire Kingmambo, was euthanized Jan. 20 at the Oak Tree Division of Lane’s End Farm in Central Kentucky due to the infirmities of age.
The daughter of Nureyev--Pasadoble, by Prove Out, was 27. She was buried in the Lane’s End/Oak Tree Division cemetery.
Bred and raced by the Niarchos family's Flaxman Holdings and trained by Francois Boutin, Miesque won nine championships in three countries during her career. The mare won 12 of her 16 career starts, including 10 group/grade I stakes, and earned $2,070,163. Her victory in the 1988 Breeders’ Cup Mile (gr. IT) made her the first horse to win consecutive runnings of a Breeders’ Cup World Championship race.
Miesque began her career in France, winning two group I races en route to being crowned champion 2-year-old filly. The following year, she won the English and French One Thousand Guineas, both group I, and established herself on the international stage with a course-record victory in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Hollywood Park. Her end-of-season hardware consisted of awards for champion turf horse in the U.S., champion 3-year-old filly in England and France, and champion miler in England and France. With the exceptions of the 3-year-old championship honors, Miesuqe repeated as champion in each of those categories again in 1988 when she too the Breeders’ Cup Mile for the second year in a row.
As good as she was on the track, Miesque was equally successful as a broodmare. Included among her offspring was Kingmambo, an internationally influential sire who stood at Lane’s End until he was pensioned in 2010. Miesque also produced French champion East of the Moon and group III winners Mingun and Miesque's Son.
Miesque was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 1999 and was ranked 82nd on The Blood-Horse magazine’s “Top 100 Thoroughbred Racehorses of the 20th Century.”
“Miesque was part of our lives,” the Niarchos family said in a statement. “She was unique and gave us immense pleasure.”