Medaglia d'Oro takes Jim Dandy

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - Medaglia d'Oro used his speed and class to overwhelm eight rivals Sunday as he romped to a front-running, 13 3-4-length victory in the $500,000 before an announced record crowd of 69,523 at Saratoga.

The Grade 2 race was marred by a spill in which jockey Richard Migliore, aboard Iron Deputy, was thrown heavily to the ground in upper stretch. Iron Deputy clipped heels with Quest, who under Javier Castellano came over on Iron Deputy at the three-sixteenths pole. Migliore was complaining of pain to his right arm - the same arm he broke in July 1999 at Belmont Park - and was taken to Saratoga Hospital for X-rays. He was awake and alert, according to agent Drew Mollica.

Quest finished second, but was disqualified by the stewards and placed last. That moved Gold Dollar - who was bumped twice and steadied in the stretch - up to second and Essence of Dubai - who also was bumped in upper stretch - to third. Easyfromthegitgo, Peekskill, Nothing Flat and Stephentown completed the order of finish.

The crowd of 69,523 was inflated by a T-shirt giveaway. Many patrons purchased more than one admission. The previous announced Saratoga record crowd was 66,942 on T-shirt day last year.

With Saratoga's fast main track playing kindly to front-runners most of the day, trainer Bobby Frankel and Jerry Bailey decided to use Medaglia d'Oro's speed to their advantage. Breaking from post 6, Medaglia d'Oro was hustled to the lead by Bailey, who set fractions of 23.60 seconds, 46.70, 1:10.74 and 1:35.11. Medaglia d'Oro ran his final eighth in 12.71 seconds while being geared down.

``We just decided that the inside bias was real strong today and he was going to try and make the lead,' said Frankel, who won his fourth graded stakes and sixth race overall of the meet. ``He ran a great race. It would have been tough for any 3-year-old to beat him the way he ran today.'

Medaglia d'Oro, who hadn't run since a second-place finish in the Belmont Stakes, covered the nine furlongs in 1:47.82 and returned $3.30 as the 3-5 favorite. Only Louis Quatorze (1:47.20), Thunder Rumble (1:47.40) and Carr de Naskra (1:47.40) ran a faster Jim Dandy.

By comparison, War Emblem won Sunday's Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park by 3 1-2 lengths, covering nine furlongs in 1:48.21.

Frankel said Medaglia d'Oro would make his next start in the $1 million Travers Stakes on Aug. 24. Others out of the Jim Dandy likely to run include Quest and Gold Dollar and possibly Essence of Dubai.