`It Has Exceeded Everything They Promise’: Medallion, Where Racing Meets Hospitality

[Wandering Eyes]

Everyone recognizes that with the glut of entertainment options today, it's harder and harder to provide experiences that really wow people. In the old days, a trainer would accept a horse from an owner, and hope to never hear from him again, or, to quote an old Charlie Whittingham adage, “Treat owners like mushrooms. Keep 'em in the dark and feed 'em horse manure.”

Those days are gone, and racing syndicates are now taking the game one step beyond mere communication—not only providing a constant stream of videos, trainer messages, and other information—but providing experiences that enhance and deepen a member's appreciation of the sport, and their bond with racing. That's good news for racing, and good business for everyone.

Medallion Racing, a Taylor Made Farm partnership group that invites partners to invest in biannual groups of horses—they're currently on Medallion V—has taken the concierge and experience theory to the ultimate extreme.

Matt LeTexier retired this week after a 30-year career at NAPA Auto Parts, and just in time; this year, he will participate in Medallion's Derby handicapping seminar, Kentucky Oaks owners' suite, trip to Deauville for the Arqana August sale with a healthy dose of sightseeing, and has just returned from their spring trip to Ireland. Medallion is also arranging a trip to Royal Ascot, and a suite at the Breeders' Cup for members of the partnership.

“One of the reasons we invested with Medallion and Taylor Made were the European experiences,” said LeTexier, part of Medallion V, who went on the Ireland trip with his wife, December, and nephew Josh Tangen. “So when this opportunity came up, we were all over it.”

On the trip, the partners visited trainer Donnacha O'Brien at his facility in County Tipperary to learn about the European style of training. “We had access to his yard, and went out two different mornings to watch them breeze,” he said. “We jumped in the Range Rover with him, and rode alongside the horses as they were running. It was kind of magical.”

December LeTexier, Josh Tangen, and Matt LeTexier at Naas | courtesy Medallion Racing

They also toured Coolmore with a special guide. “We had a great visit at Coolmore where M.V. Magnier gave us a tour. That was amazing. He showed us their stallions and walked us around the farm and to the breeding shed and through the museum. He was great. That's the kind of experience that just wouldn't happen without the relationships that the Taylor Made team has there.”

The group also visited Ballydoyle, stayed at the Cashel Palace, dined at Mikey Ryan's, and spent a day at Naas Racecourse with their chairman, Dermot Cantillon.

“Part of my retirement plan was to get involved in horse racing, and this has just really helped facilitate it,” said LeTexier, who looks forward to one day racing his own horses under the name of Pegasus Farms.

Medallion V currently consists of two horses—both of which won last weekend. Grand Job (Justify) was second last out in her 2025 debut in the GIII Royal Delta Stakes, and won an allowance at Gulfstream Friday. Public Assembly (More Than Ready) won an allowance at Santa Anita.

The plan, said Phillip Shelton, Medallion's racing manager, is to expand the group to 8-12 horses. Each partner in each individual Medallion unit owns a piece of every horse in the group. Medallion IV included two-time Royal Ascot winner Porta Fortuna and the multiple graded stakes-placed Vodka With a Twist (Thousand Words).

LeTexier and Tangen at Donnacha O'Brien's training facility in Tipperary | December LeTexier photo

Shelton said that over the past few years, he has been traveling to Europe to sales and to visit the horses that Medallion has in Europe, like Porta Fortuna. “I thought I'd put it out to people, and just see if anybody wanted to go.” As it turned out, they did.

The group included the LeTexiers and Tangen, and other Medallion partners Steve Weston and Jimmy Lee.

Lee, who has been in four Medallion partnerships, also owns horses on his own and with other partnerships.

“If you tried to develop this on your own, it would never happen,” said Lee. “You'd never get there. The level of folks in the horse racing business that I met on this trip alone is mind-boggling to me. You're getting to meet the O'Briens, Donnacha is going to train a horse for us in the group, we go to Coolmore and M.V. comes out and meets us in the parking lot and walks with us and chats with us. We had dinner with Donnacha one night, dinner with Fozzy Stack, and dinner with Paddy Twomey. Being able to see how each one does their own thing and learn and sort of get to know the people instead of just reading their names in the paper, that's cool. Just getting in the game to have that level of access is really almost unheard of. It was really, really, impressive.”

“It's an appealing thing to get to experience,” said Shelton. “And that's what we're trying to do—leverage our resources and our connections. The mission statement of Medallion is an exclusive ownership opportunity at the highest levels of Thoroughbred racing. That's what we're selling. We don't want 200 partners. It's a smaller group.”

What he's learned organizing these events, he says, is that money is a motivating factor, but time is almost as much so.

“The more of your own free time you have to invest in planning, figuring things out, the more of a deterrent it is,” he said. “Here, everybody sends me their flight information, and as soon as you land, everything else is taken care of.” They plan shows and events, dinners and racing. The upcoming Deauville experience will offer guided tours of the D-Day landing sites and a trip to Le Mont Saint Michel, among other things. They will also visit stud farms, and accompany Shelton to inspect yearlings in the mornings. The motivation? “How can we make it as easy as possible for people to say yes?” asked Shelton.

The bottom line? “I think it's a huge selling point for us,” said Shelton. “The great thing about all of these partnerships is that they're allowing you an opportunity that you cannot get on your own.”

For LeTexier, the behind-the-scenes peek at racing was the secret sauce that will draw him further into the game.

“For me, specifically, I'm just trying to soak it in and learn as much as I can about the business and how we can go about building our Pegasus Farms team along with them,” he said. “It has been a great experience here thus far, early on, and we're looking forward to what's ahead. You can't think of better partners, for sure.”

Lee agrees. “It would be hard to be disappointed with this group,” he said. “It has exceeded everything they promise. And the guys at Taylor Made are as good a guys as you'll deal with in the industry.”

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