In a year with several outstanding fillies and mares on the track, some of the most brilliant propelled their respective sires atop the rankings of Kentucky stallions by percentage of individual runners earning triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures.
In a year with several outstanding fillies and mares on the track, some of the most brilliant propelled their respective sires atop the rankings of Kentucky stallions by percentage of individual runners earning triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures.
Three stallions are represented by multiple individual finalists at this weekend’s Eclipse Awards – Curlin, Dansili, and Medaglia d’Oro.
Of those three, Medaglia d’Oro, who is based at Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Kentucky, is the only one who seems likely to have a winner. The outstanding filly sire is represented by Horse of the Year finalist Songbird, a virtual lock to earn her second divisional Eclipse as champion 3-year-old filly. Medaglia d’Oro is also the sire of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner New Money Honey, a finalist in the 2-year-old filly division.
Last weekend provided something of a harmonic convergence for the stud career of Medaglia d’Oro. On the same day that the retirement of the only daughter of his first great champion filly Rachel Alexandra was announced, Medaglia d’Oro’s second great American champion filly Songbird soared to an emphatic victory in the Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks at Saratoga.
Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year, was confirmed by her connections on Thursday to be in foal to Medaglia d’Oro for 2017.
The foal will be the fifth for the newly elected Hall of Famer, who is owned by Jerry and Ann Moss and resides at Lane’s End in Versailles, Ky. The mating was initially announced in May.
It is the first time Zenyatta was paired with Medaglia d’Oro, who stands at Darley’s U.S. base in Lexington, Ky., for an advertised fee of $150,000. Zenyatta is a daughter of the late Street Cry, who was also on the Darley roster.
The champion filly Songbird remained undefeated and unchallenged with her victory in the Grade 3 Santa Ysabel Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday and continues to lead sire Medaglia d’Oro’s quest for his third Kentucky Oaks winner.
Medaglia d’Oro, based at Darley’s Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky., is the sire of six of the 112 early nominees to the Kentucky Oaks, which will be run May 6 at Churchill Downs, but Songbird is the only stakes winner in his group.
Barry Irwin, the managing partner of the Team Valor racing partnership, went deep on two yearlings early on in the first session of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearling Sale on Monday night, spending $875,000 on a Medaglia d’Oro colt and $600,000 on an Indian Charlie filly, the second- and third-highest prices at the session at the halfway mark.
Passion for Gold, a Group 1 winner in France for Sheikh Mohammed al-Maktoum’s Godolphin operation, has been sold to begin his stallion career at Jose Luis Gatica’s Haras Puerta de Hierro in Chile, Racing Post reports.
The 6-year-old son of Medaglia d’Oro retired from racing at the end of his 2011 campaign, following a career where he won three of seven races for earnings of $268,125.
Street Cry will stand for a fee of about $112,794 ($110,000 Australian) at Darley’s Kelvinside Stud in New South Wales, Australia, this Southern Hemisphere breeding season, highlighting the 23 stallions the international breeding operation will stand between two farms.
The American operation of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum’s Darley will hold a series of online auctions for nominations to sires Medaglia d’Oro, Hard Spun, and Lonhro for the 2013 breeding season.