Medaglia d'Oro filly brings $650K

Stonestreet Stables principals Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke were no doubt thinking of their 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra Monday when they bid $650,000 for another Medaglia d'Oro filly at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-old auction.

The price was the second-highest price ever at the sale, behind last year's $850,000 bid for the Tapit colt Trappe Shot. Steve Young, agent, placed that bid for the colt, who was then named Tashop and now races for Mill House.

The Medaglia d'Oro filly is the first foal out of stakes-winner Chit Chat Pam, by Valid Expectations. The late Edmund Gann bred the bay filly, and the Eisaman Equine agency consigned her on behalf of the Gann estate. Cataloged as Hip No. 69, the filly was one of five juveniles to work an eighth of a mile in 10.20 seconds at last week's under-tack preview.

Bidding opened at $300,000 and quickly escalated from there for the filly.

She is from the family of Grade 1 winner Strategic Mission.

Hip No. 69 was one of six juveniles to bring $200,000 or more by 3:45 p.m. at the sale.

The second-highest price at the session at that time, also for a filly, was the $380,000 that Hillwood Stable bid for the Pike Racing agency's Quiet American daughter. The bay filly is out of the winning Eskimo mare Icelandic Dancer, making her a half-sister to stakes-winner Sizzlin South and to stakes-winner and stakes-producer Sparklin Lil.