With sale to Medallion Racing, Distinta stays in the Taylor Made family

It would have been bold to predict that California Chrome would have something to do with the most expensive offering of the Fasig-Tipton July select horses-of-racing-age sale, but that was the bet that paid out when Grade 2 winner Distinta sold to Medallion Racing for $600,000.

The Medallion Racing syndicate is an offshoot of Taylor Made Farm, conceived after the operation’s positive experience with the two-time Horse of the Year in which they took on several partners to campaign the horse and later stand him at stud.

“Medallion Racing is something that we came up with that’s kind of an offshoot of the experience we had with California Chrome and Cathryn Sophia,” said Mark Taylor of the Taylor Made operation. “We just thought buying into proven horses that can run in high-level graded stakes was a great way to get people in the business. If you go and buy an unproven horse, it’s still a great experience, but you might go through a lot of partnerships and never get to the promised land.”

Distinta, a 5-year-old Summer Bird mare, won the Grade 2 Inside Information Stakes at Gulfstream Park two starts prior to the sale, putting her squarely in the Medallion Racing profile.

Taylor said Medallion Racing would own a 25 percent stake in Distinta, along with three other partners. Decisions regarding her trainer and the roadmap for the remainder of 2017 and beyond would be left up to the partners, who have their own trainers.

Taylor Made Sales Agency also consigned the mare. Though Distinta’s sale was a somewhat internal transaction, Taylor said steps were taken to ensure it was on the level. He and two other staff members operated separately in the interest of Medallion Racing, while his nephew Marshall Taylor and sales associate Sebastian Angelilo handled the business of selling the mare.

“We didn’t even want to know what the reserve was,” Taylor said. “I knew she was going to cost north of $500,000, but that was pretty much our last bid there. We said if we could get her for $600,000, we’d take a shot, and if we can’t, let somebody else have her.”