Midnight Still powers clear at Saratoga for trainer Kinnon LaRose

Midnight Still made trainer Kinnon LaRose’s Saratoga breakthrough count, handling a 5 1/2-furlong maiden special weight on Saturday and giving the conditioner his first win at the Spa with the first horse he had ever sent there. The chestnut Curlin colt, sent off as the clear favorite, drew away by 2 3/4 lengths over Decimation in Race 1, stopped the clock in 1:05.20 and returned $3.48 to win.

The trip was every bit as important as the margin. Flavien Prat kept Midnight Still just off a pace set by Decimation, then angled him three wide into the lane and asked for the move in upper stretch. Midnight Still took control with about a furlong to run and kept widening, even while hanging on his wrong lead. For a 2-year-old in only his second start, that kind of finish looked cleaner than a routine maiden score, especially on a fast track in a $115,000 race for 2-year-olds at Saratoga Race Course.

Midnight Still entered the Spa off a debut third to Balloteer at Churchill Downs on June 12, and the market treated him like a colt with more coming. He was the morning-line favorite in pre-race racecards at roughly 6/5 and was hammered down to 3-5 at the windows. His profile already carried real expense and expectation, too: he sold for $350,000 at Keeneland September 2025 through Lane’s End to Double Down Racing before taking this step forward for Double Down Horse Racing.

The pedigree points in the same direction. Midnight Still is by Curlin out of More Moonshine, by Malibu Moon, and the official chart lists him as a Kentucky-bred colt foaled April 11, 2024, with Summer Wind Equine LLC as breeder. After Saturday, his Equibase profile moved to 2 starts, 1 win, 1 second and $75,250 in earnings, a tidy line for a horse that now looks more like a summer project than a one-race story.

LaRose’s own rise gives the win an extra layer. Before training, he was a Siena University basketball player, and he had never touched a horse until about six years ago, when he started working for Tom Amoss. As of July 12, LaRose’s career record stood at 83 starts, 15 wins, 16 seconds, 13 thirds and $1,033,752 in earnings, numbers that show a trainer still building, but building fast. Midnight Still’s Saratoga win was the kind of result that can sharpen that profile quickly.