Old Gold Burnished For Latest Medals

[Wandering Eyes]

To adapt Shakespeare on Cleopatra: “age cannot wither him, nor custom stale his infinite variety.” To be enjoying an Indian summer like this, however, Medaglia d'Oro has had to stem what often proves an inexorable tide once a stallion enters the evening of his career.

For the ageism so common among breeders can be self-fulfilling. Any stallion still operating at 26 must have shown an unequivocal prowess over the years. That being so, however, he will typically have produced fashionable sons to erode his own market share. And once enough people buy into the prejudice against older sires, you get a chicken-and-egg effect. First it will show in his books, both in quality and quantity; and then, guess what, his results will dwindle accordingly. And then everyone can shake their heads and say: “There you go, just like I said. These older stallions all lose their pep.”

That's not to deny that these horses can run into legitimate issues, notably diminishing fertility. But they will be managed accordingly, and the fact is that Medaglia d'Oro was already a venerable 22 when siring his current sophomores. These include not just the unbeaten GI Kentucky Oaks winner Good Cheer, but East Avenue, a Grade I winner at two foiled by just a nose at the same level this spring. Nitrogen won the GII Edgewood Stakes on the Oaks undercard, while Ballerina d'Oro had earned her own Oaks place winning the GIII Gazelle Stakes. That these horses are likely to keep thriving, moreover, was underlined on Derby day when the 6-year-old Spirit of St Louis won his second elite prize of the year in the Turf Classic.

Yet Medaglia d'Oro, sire of 29 Grade I winners and 99 graded stakes winners, has been standing the last couple of years at $75,000, down from $250,000 in 2019.

“When a stallion starts to get older, you need to keep ahead of the demand,” explains Darley sales manager Darren Fox. “You try to keep them just the right side of good value. The worst thing you can do is try to maintain a falsely high fee. Fall into that trap, and you find yourself having to do foal shares and/or accepting weaker mares. And then you're just going to accelerate the downslide.

“The market's looking for any clue that they might be cooling down. The first hint of that, they'll flee. It's hard for a stallion to survive a sub-par book of mares at that stage of his career. So you price them to maintain demand, and quality, so that they can keep coasting forward and extend their career as long as possible.”

And that's just what the Darley team has done with Medaglia d'Oro.

“When he was dropped from $150,000 [in 2022], we could very easily have stopped at $125,000,” Fox remarks. “But at $100,000 we made him a no-brainer. You want to leave people an easy decision.”

That creates a virtuous circle, in that those supervising his book are still able to choose, not beg. If numbers are going to be finite, anyway, how much better if you can remain selective. Last year Medaglia d'Oro was confined to 88 mares, his first two-figure book, and this time round it will have been considerably fewer.

“We obviously worked with a much smaller book,” Fox says. “But the numbers feel right, both the fee and the book. Given how hot he has been, we reached capacity quite early. That was fine. He's not a horse we were going to overface at this stage. Michael Banahan [director of bloodstock] looks at everything–the fertility, the physicality, the libido–and sets a number.”

That fertility is understandably beginning to ebb: the last documented yield, from 101 mares covered in 2023, was 63 live foals. By the same token, breeders will want to hurry while stocks last. Indeed, last winter we awarded gold on a TDN Value Podium.

“It's fair to say that the fertility has stair-stepped down, the last few years,” Fox acknowledges. “He was just over 50% last year. But we've always said, at his age and stage, that every year is a bonus. That's been our philosophy–and we've had a lot of bonus years.”

For however long he can remain active, then, the horse's managers and clientele need to work together. Let's say you would love one more Medaglia d'Oro filly, eventually to join your broodmare band. You're going to need a bit of luck, obviously–and it may have to be earned. A one-night stand might not suffice.

“He's there all season long, of course, but you might need to stay the course,” says Fox. “Given that fee, relative to his performance, people will know that going in. They'll be more than happy to give a mare the three shots to try and get that pregnancy. It is what it is. Obviously his fertility is not what it was a few years ago. But we're happy with how he's performing for his age.”

Critically, the libido is still there. That will make his own views very legible, when it comes to deciding his future.

“There's never a formula,” Fox says. “They will tell you, and you just look for all the clues. Physically, he's still telling us, 'Bring it on!' Graham Lovatt, our stallion manager, says that he's one of the strongest horses in the breeding shed.

“Our goal, at an open house, is to stand the stallion up in that center circle. But Steve Clarke–who has retired before the horse!–always said that he had to start putting the brakes on halfway down the lane, otherwise he'd overshoot the landing spot. The physicality is certainly not lacking. He walks like he's going places, a man on a mission.”

And that physicality, of course, is founded in one of the most celebrated physiques around. At Keeneland last September, in fact, Medaglia d'Oro made his 56th seven-figure sale at auction.

That $1.35-million colt actually brought things full circle as brother to a Horse of the Year out of their sire's debut crop. Rachel Alexandra's 20-length success in the 2009 Oaks was followed, in the 2011 running, by Plum Pretty; but the fever that sidelined Songbird in 2016 and a half-length miss by Wonder Gadot in 2018 meant that Medaglia d'Oro had to wait for Good Cheer to match the 19th century record of King Alfonso with a third Oaks winner.

Those names once gave Medaglia d'Oro a reputation as a filly sire, but his elite winners have since virtually evened out: 14 male, 15 female. In terms of surface, similarly, he divides 13 on dirt against 16 on turf. And that “infinite variety” has very much become a hallmark, a vital factor in his legacy. As a son of El Prado (Ire), he has done something beyond the late Kitten's Joy as a conduit to North American dirt for the Sadler's Wells branch of the Northern Dancer dynasty.

Perhaps he has been helped, in doing so, by damsire Bailjumper–giving his own sire Damascus an imprint on the breed that has otherwise proved disappointingly marginal. Bailjumper, of course, stood here at Jonabell.

“And it's funny,” says Fox. “Philip Hampton, another of our stallion grooms who's retired but who spent all his working life here, said that Medaglia d'Oro's dam Cappucino Bay looked a lot like Bailjumper. And Albert and Joyce Bell from Montana, who bred and raised Medaglia d'Oro, once showed me a picture of Cappuccino Bay at 29 years of age. Now, it was the summer, she was dappled out. But if they'd said, 'What do you think of our 19-year-old mare?' I wouldn't have argued with them, she was that youthful.”

While we may finally be entering a new era in transatlantic traffic, Medaglia d'Oro has served as a crucial crossover influence during a period when versatility and geographical reach were more cramped. Alongside his dirt Classic winners he has given us an Australian turf sprinter, Astern (Aus); the Hong Kong cash machine, Golden Sixty (Aus); a lightning juvenile, Bolt d'Oro; and a rare Grade I winner on both dirt and turf, Mshawish.

“Remember that El Prado won the Beresford on 'Curragh soft' ground,” Fox says. “So for Medaglia d'Oro to be the elite dirt horse he was, he was just a phenom. In 17 starts, he was first or second in 15–and 14 were triple-digit Beyers! He ran 120, 119, 118, two 117s. But it explains why he's so even, turf and dirt, because he's a perfect blend.”

Seeking the best of both worlds, you can end up with the worst of one. But this horse has been the grail: a physique that supported brilliance, and replicates. And his legacy only continues to grow. Young stallions out of his daughters include National Treasure, Prince of Monaco and Olympiad, while Violence is extending a male line through four sons of his own at stud. Violence's calling card seems to be speed, so again there's that variegation. The opportunities of another sprinter, Fast Anna, were tragically curtailed–but he still left us a Horse of the Year in 2024. And the filly who got closest to Good Cheer in the Oaks was by Bolt d'Oro.

But the big hope, at Jonabell, is that East Avenue can someday enter the contest for the succession.

“East Avenue is another with a lot of speed,” Fox notes. “He ran a good eighth in the Derby and there's definitely another big one in him. He's out of a Ghostzapper half to Cody's Wish, with a physique you would drool over, so it would be great if Medaglia could pass the torch. For any farm, there's a lot of pride in finding your own heir, the way Street Sense has carried Street Cry (Ire)'s legacy forward. And you do see a lot of his pop in East Avenue. Coming up with a good son for our program, at this stage of his career, it's great timing, a little poetic even.”

But Medaglia d'Oro is not done yet. As Fox notes, it was only at 19 that he reached his peak fee.

“That makes his story a little unique,” he says. “Not many elite stallions wait until that kind of age to hit a quarter-million [dollar stud fee]. Yes, he has stair-stepped down in recent years–but from such a great height, and so late in his career, that his career can continue playing out differently from most.”

There's plenty of fresh blood in the Darley stallion barn, with a Derby winner to follow, but there's no doubt who remains the senior pro.

“To me, one of the big common denominators with all the stallions in our barn is that they're smart,” Fox says. “You get different types, different sire-lines, but they have the mental aptitude and that's what separates them. Because talent on its own isn't enough if they can't withstand the rigors of racing and training. Medaglia d'Oro epitomizes that, and his progeny have that same intelligence.

“Trainers love seeing them come into the barn. And typically whatever they show you in the mornings, they will show in the afternoons. They're just classy horses that want to do their job. And that's him. He's a pleasure to be around, a gentleman, and just the pride of the barn.”

The post Old Gold Burnished For Latest Medals appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article