Daily Racing Form National Digital Edition
MEDAGLIA D’ORO CONTINUES TO BUILD ON SUCCESS
Medaglia d’Oro, who is enjoying a major run of success on the racetrack and in the auction ring, stole the show at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale. Now, heading into the Keeneland September yearling sale, he is set with a star contingent of yearlings ready to take their place at center stage.
Medaglia d’Oro, an El Prado horse who stands for Darley, sired 2009 Horse of the Year and eventual Hall of Fame inductee Rachel Alexandra in his first crop. Rachel Alexandra won the 2009 Kentucky Oaks, and two years later Medaglia d’Oro was represented by a second Kentucky Oaks winner in Plum Pretty. His daughter Songbird was an Eclipse Award champion in 2015 and 2016. But still, the stallion climbed to even greater heights in 2017, with seven Grade 1 winners in North America, including a pair of Breeders’ Cup winners, with five of those becoming Eclipse Award finalists. He joined Danzig, Mr. Prospector, and Storm Cat as the only American stallions to sire seven top-level winners in a calendar year. Medaglia d’Oro had five runners record Beyer Speed Figures of 100 or higher, placing him in the top 10 in Daily Racing Form’s Beyer Sire Performance Standings by that metric.
Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint winner Bar of Gold and Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Talismanic put the exclamation points on their sire’s outstanding year, showchasing his versatility at the same time. Songbird returned to become a multiple Grade 1 winner in 2017 before her retirement. Medaglia d’Oro’s other top-level winners were Bolt d’Oro, Dickinson, Elate, and New Money Honey.
“He’s been a dynamite sire for a long time, but he does seem to have his best [group] in terms of racetrack performance,” said Bob Elliston, Keeneland’s vice president of racing and sales.
Off that strong season, Medaglia d’Oro is among the most commercially popular stallions in the country for 2018, beginning with a strong showing in the 2-yearold market. He topped the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale with a $1.2 million filly, and less than two months later topped the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale with a $1.2 million colt, now named Lebron J.
At the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale, Medaglia d’Oro was represented by three seven-figure lots in a single night, led by a $1.35 million colt sold to a partnership including West Point Thoroughbreds, Robert Masiello, Chris Larsen, and Siena Farm to top the sale. The stallion also was responsible for a $1.3 million filly sold to Phoenix Thoroughbreds and a $1 million filly sold to Lael Stable.
Medaglia d’Oro was represented by 54 yearlings in the Keeneland September catalog prior to scratches. His star offering is a colt out of Broodmare of the Year Leslie’s Lady, making him a half-brother to four-time Eclipse Award champion Beholder, Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Mendelssohn, and Grade 1 winner and leading sire Into Mischief. Mendelssohn topped the 2016 edition of Keeneland September when he sold for $3 million from the consignment of Fred and Nancy Mitchell’s Clarkland Farm, which owns Leslie’s Lady.
Elliston called the Mitchells “the nicest people on the planet.”
“It doesn’t matter if they have a consignment of five or 55, they’re the same folks,” he said. “If they sold a champion like they have, or an incredible stallion like Into Mischief, they’re the same people as if they sold one in Book 5 for $20,000. You root for folks like that. They’re good people, and they raise a great horse.”
Medaglia d’Oro’s other standout offerings in the Keeneland September catalog include a filly out of Canadian Horse of the Year Sealy Hill, dam of Canadian champion Hillaby and graded stakes winners Belle Hill and Gale Force; a colt out of champion Dayatthespa; a halfbrother to Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Stopchargingmaria; a half-brother to Grade 1 winners Meadow Breeze and Overanalyze; and yearlings out of Grade 1 winners Aubby K and Grace Hall.
– Nicole Russo
Spendthrift Stallions put up big numbers
Following the summer meetings at Saratoga and Del Mar, both of which showcase promising juveniles, Into Mischief and his son Goldencents, both standing at Spendthrift Farm, emerged as the leading established and freshman 2-year-old sires in the country.
Into Mischief, powered by Grade 3 Sanford winner Sombeyay, led the juvenile sires earnings list through Sept. 3. He was tied with the late Scat Daddy, whose final foals are current juveniles, with 15 winners. Quality Road, the sire of Grade 1 Del Mar Debutante winner Bellafina, sat third on the earnings list. The Lane’s End stallion is tied for the lead in DRF’s Beyer Sire Performance Standings with four benchmark figures of 80 or higher for his 2-year-olds, led by Bellafina’s 94 in the Debutante. Perennial leading sire Tapit, standing at Gainesway, also has four figures of 80 or higher in the category.
Factoring in all runners, Into Mischief is seventh among living U.S. sires with 33 Beyers of 90 or higher recorded by 15 individuals. Quality Road, with Eclipse Award champions Abel Tasman and Caledonia Road active this season, sits ninth on that list with 30 Beyers of 90 or higher; those include 10 triple-digit figures from four individuals.
Into Mischief is represented by 87 yearlings in the Keeneland September catalog, including a filly out of Grade 1 winner Meadow Breeze, dam of Grade 1-placed juvenile Royal Copy. Quality Road had 46 yearlings cataloged.
Meanwhile, Goldencents, who has 40 yearlings cataloged for Keeneland September, has emerged as the leader of a competitive freshman sire class. Through Sept. 3, he led fellow Spendthrift stallion Cross Traffic by winners and Airdrie Stud’s Cairo Prince by earnings.
Cross Traffic is represented by 19 yearlings in the Keeneland catalog – including one filly, from the family of Grade 1 winner Shotgun Gulch, selected for the elite Book 1 portion.
Cairo Prince, who has been commer-
cially popular throughout his nascent career, has 51 yearlings cataloged, with a strong Book 1 contingent including a half-brother to Kentucky Oaks winner Believe You Can and a filly from the family of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. – Nicole Russo
Last yearlings by City Zip
City Zip was aptly named, a speedster based in New York who was a tenacious competitor. Trained most of his career by Linda Rice, City Zip excelled at sprint distances, racking up nine victories, $818,225 in earnings, and eight stakes wins and eight stakes placings in 23 starts, but when he went to stud, there were no great expectations.
The son of sprinter Carson City out of the Relaunch mare Baby Zip, City Zip started at stud in 2002 at Contemporary Stallions in Coxsackie, N.Y., for a fee of $7,500, and was bred mostly to New Yorkbased mares, not necessarily a proven recipe for success.
Even before his first crop reached the races, his pedigree improved dramatically in 2004 when his half-brother Ghostzapper won that year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic and went on to be voted Horse of the Year. Lane’s End, based in Versailles, Ky., stepped in and brought City Zip to the Bluegrass State for the 2005 breeding season and doubled his fee to $15,000.
While that may have seemed aggressive at the time, his progeny started running that spring. And running. By year-end, City Zip was the third-leading freshman sire in the country, with the most winners, 20, by any first-crop sire, and he looked like he would be more than a regional sire. And he proved to be.
City Zip went on to sire horses who could sprint, run a middle distance, and run on dirt and grass. His best progeny were like him – fast and game – and some could carry their speed. He sired champion turf female Dayatthespa, Canadian Horse of the Year Catch a Glimpse, champion sprinter Work All Week, champion female sprinter Finest City, and such Grade 1 winners as Collected, Palace, Bustin Stones, and Zipessa. He has sired 81 stakes winners, 28 of which won graded stakes, and has progeny earnings of $89 million. He has firmly staked a place among leading sires annually.
City Zip last covered mares in 2016. He was to stand the 2017 season for a fee of $50,000, but was not able to cover any mares that year because of chronic foot problems. He was euthanized due to those problems in July 2017 at the relatively young age of 19.
The foals from City Zip’s last crop are yearlings, and he is represented by 45 horses in the Keeneland September sale catalog. Lifetime, City Zip yearlings have averaged $59,109 at sales, but much of that is based on lower stud fees from his earlier years. From 2016 through this year’s summer sales, 70 yearlings by City Zip have sold for an average of $133,617.
– Mark Simon