Champion Midnight Bisou Pronounced In Foal To Curlin

Hill 'n' Dale Farms announced today that Eclipse champion Midnight Bisou, the richest North American distaffer of all time, with earnings of $7,471,520, has been pronounced in foal to two-time Horse of the Year and champion sire Curlin.

Never out of the money in any of her 22 career starts for co-owners Bloom Racing, Madaket Stables LLC and Allen Racing LLC., the well-traveled mare raced at 10 tracks and was awarded an Eclipse Award in 2019 as champion older dirt female. Her Grade 1 victories came in the Santa Anita Oaks, the Cotillion Stakes, the Apple Blossom Handicap, the Ogden Phipps Stakes, and the Personal Ensign Stakes.

Her sire, two time Breeders' Cup winner Midnight Lute stands alongside Curlin at Hill 'n' Dale at the farm's new stallion complex.

“Midnight Bisou was a mare with extraordinary ability. One can only imagine the possibilities from the mating of two such Greats of the breed,” said John G. Sikura, president of Hill 'n' Dale.

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Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: Road To The Gold Mine For Medaglia d’Oro Had Many Twists And Turns

With the graded stakes victories of Moonlight d'Oro and Risk Taking over the weekend, their sire Medaglia d'Oro now has 76 graded stakes winners worldwide, from 148 stakes winners bred in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Moonlight d'Oro won the Grade 3 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 8, and shortly thereafter on Saturday, Risk Taking won the G3 Withers at Aqueduct. It was the first stakes victory for each horse.

Their sire is most famous for the champions Rachel Alexandra (Kentucky Oaks, Preakness Stakes, Haskell) and Songbird (Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and eight other Grade 1 races), but there is no question that Medaglia d'Oro is a gold medal stallion.

But it was not always so. A three-time winner at the G1 level himself, Medaglia d'Oro was a leading racer by his sire El Prado, who in turn was the lone successful representative of the Sadler's Wells line in the States at the time. Scarcity, in this instance, would not be considered a virtue among breeders, who flock to the horses who succeed the most and equally shun those who do not.

So the relative lack of success from the Sadler's Wells branch of Northern Dancer was a serious impediment to Medaglia d'Oro, and being out of a mare by the Damascus stallion Bailjumper, the horse's pedigree wasn't the sort that brought stallion farms racing to stand the horse, no matter how strong his racing career had been.

In the imminently capable hands of trainer Bobby Frankel, Medaglia d'Oro had won $5.7 million with victories in the G1 Travers, Whitney, and Donn, along with prestigious seconds in the Dubai World Cup, Breeders' Cup Classic (twice), and the Belmont Stakes. The race in Dubai was the last one for Medaglia d'Oro, and he was sold to Richard Haisfield in May 2004.

As a 6-year-old, the horse entered stud in 2005 with John G. Sikura at Hill 'n' Dale Farms, then was transferred to Audrey Haisfield's Stonewall Farm in 2006. Now an independent bloodstock consultant, Clark Shepherd was then the seasons and matings manager for Stonewall.

Shepherd recalled that “since the Haisfields already owned the horse, when the stallion barn was finished at Stonewall, he yanked the horses – Medaglia d'Oro, Doneraile Court, and Marquetry, as I recall – and put them all at Stonewall.”

In addition to these, Stonewall also stood champion older horse Lawyer Ron (by Langfuhr) and champion turf horse Leroidesanimaux (Candy Stripes), plus several others.

These were bullish years in racing and breeding, and Shepherd recalled that he didn't have “a lot of trouble getting mares to the horses, especially Medaglia. In part, that was because the farm had started a deal of awarding complimentary matings to mares who were either graded stakes winners or graded stakes producers. That kept the mare volume at a level that second- and third-year stallions don't usually enjoy these days.”

Part of the rationale behind that aggressive approach to bringing mares into the stallions' books was to make the resulting foals as commercially appealing as possible, as well as to get many mares of racing quality into the stallions' books.

The first-crop yearlings by Medaglia d'Oro made him a successful commercial sire at the sales in 2007, and he was well-ranked in fourth among the 2008 freshmen sires, led by Tapit (Pulpit), when Rachel Alexandra was her sire's first-crop leader, and the filly backed up that early promise with classic greatness in the 2009 Kentucky Oaks and Preakness Stakes.

Entrepreneur and sportsman Richard Santulli, along with businessman Barry Weisbord, had purchased a minority interest in Medaglia d'Oro in August 2008, as first the national, then the world, economy tipped into deeper collapse.

As that economic demise precipitated through the end of 2008 and reached its lowest point in the first part of 2009, bloodstock and the commercial equine market felt the sting even worse than the general economy. Then, as the financial side of the Stonewall operation began to unwind, Godolphin came in and bought the rapidly appreciating Medaglia d'Oro for a reported $40 million total valuation in a deal that closed in early June 2009.

The stallion shipped across town to Darley's Jonabell stallion farm, and that has been his base ever since.

One of the more successful shuttle stallions, Medaglia d'Oro sired two of his better colts Down Under with champion Vancouver and Group 1 winner Astern. In the Northern Hemisphere, as well, success for the stallion's progeny has become more equally divided between the colts and fillies, with such as Talismanic (Breeders' Cup Turf), and his sons at stud continue to have a following among breeders. Chief among these stallion sons is Violence, who stands at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa, and Medaglia d'Oro's younger sons without foals of racing age include G1 winners Bolt d'Oro (Spendthrift) and Higher Power (Darby Dan).

Currently standing for $150,000 live foal at Darley, Medaglia d'Oro is one of the most popular and influential sires of the day.

The post Bloodlines Presented By Diamond B Farm’s Rowayton: Road To The Gold Mine For Medaglia d’Oro Had Many Twists And Turns appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Sikura Makes A Case for World of Trouble

When Hill 'n' Dale Farms announced that it would be standing World of Trouble (Kantharos) at stud, everything appeared straightforward. The horse was among the fastest of his generation and had won Grade I races on the turf and dirt. Considering the modest stud fee of $15,000 and the horse's credentials, Hill 'n' Dale President John Sikura had every reason to believe that the horse would be one of the more popular stallions at his farm.

Five months later, it all came crashing down. His trainer Jason Servis was indicted in March for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs on his horses. Suddenly, he became a tough sell as a stallion.

Some may claim that none of this should have been a surprise to Sikura. Long before the indictments, suspicions surrounded Servis, a trainer whose accomplishments often seemed too good to be true.

“I claim naivete,” Sikura said. “I was not aware of any suspicions. It wasn't common talk in my circles. It may have been among gamblers or rival trainers, but I was never aware of any controversy swirling around him. Now I am more attuned to the subject and pay attention to it more closely. ”

Sikura decided to be proactive. He issued an open letter to the industry in the TDN defending World of Trouble and cut his stud fee in half to $7,500. Whether it will work or not remains to be seen. This is new territory for not just World of Trouble, but a handful of other stallions that were trained by Servis or Jorge Navarro, who was also indicted for allegedly using performance-enhancing drugs. Were they top race horses because of their natural ability or because their trainers may have been cheating or some combination of the two?

“If you delve into his form you'll see that this horse has always been a good horse,” Sikura said. “If he was given substances he shouldn't have been given, I won't defend that, but to say that a horse can run three quarters in six and change only because off some potion, I don't think that's a realistic position. The correlation between multiple Grade I winner and a magic potion, I don't think that is fair. I don't think it's based in fact.”

World of Trouble won the GI 2019 Jaipur S. at six furlongs on the grass in 1:06.37. Two starts earlier, he won the GI Carter H. on the dirt. Those are his two most impressive wins, but Sikura is quick to point out that World of Trouble showed promise before being turned over to Servis after his second career start. For trainer Kathleen O'Connell, he broke his maiden by 14 lengths in his first start and then was second in the FTBOA Florida Sire Affirmed S.

“Trained by Kathleen O'Connell for his first two starts as a two-year-old, World of Trouble looked like a world beater, breaking his maiden first time out by 14 lengths,” Sikura wrote in his letter.
Sikura said it's too early to tell whether or not his letter and the reduction in the stud fee will mean that World of Trouble will have a decent size book this year. Last year, in his first season as a sire, he was bred to 121 mares, most of which were booked before the indictments came out.

“It's early yet,” he said. “What we've done has stirred debate, but I don't know if it will change anybody's stance. We reduced the stud fee in half, we pointed out that he was fast before he was trained by Jason Servis and that he was fast after he was trained by Jason Servis. We don't know the specific illegal drug that was given to the horse or how, if and to what measure that affected his performance. It's an issue people feel strongly about, but a lot of it is just conjecture.”

Sikura said he has received messages of support when it comes to World of Trouble, but has also been targeted by those who he calls Internet trolls, “who hate the game and are convinced there is a conspiracy and a cover up when it comes to everything.”

Hill 'n' Dale also might have felt some concern after Charlatan (Speightstown) crossed the wire first in a division of the GI Arkansas Derby, and the farm secured the breeding rights to the Bob Baffert-trained colt. It was soon revealed that Charlatan had tested positive for lidocaine in the race, which meant he lost his lone Grade I win at the time.

But Charlatan will be fine. He came back to win the GI Runhappy Malibu S. and is the likely favorite in the $20 million Saudi Cup. He figures to be a very popular sire. As for World of Trouble, his first crop will hit the racetrack in 2023. It may not be until then that the questions swirling around World of Trouble are answered.

“We made decisions that should impact interest and increase the size of his book to some degree,” Sikura said. “What happens next, only time will tell.”

The post Sikura Makes A Case for World of Trouble appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Grade 1 Winner Fighting Mad Retired, To Be Bred To Curlin In 2021

Fighting Mad, a California-based Grade 1 winner, has been retired from racing and will be bred to Hall of Famer Curlin during the 2021 breeding season, Daily Racing Form and BloodHorse report.

The 6-year-old daughter of New Year's Day won five of 10 starts during her on-track career, earning $472,008 as a homebred for Gary and Mary West and trained by Bob Baffert. Her biggest win came last year when she led at every point of call in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar, which was preceded by a front-running victory in the G2 Santa Maria Stakes at Santa Anita Park.

In 2019, Fighting Mad earned her first career graded stakes win, when she took the G3 Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar in gate-to-wire fashion.

Curlin, a 17-year-old son of Smart Strike, stands at Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa in Paris, Ky., for an advertised fee of $175,000. He is the sire of Preakness Stakes winner Exaggerator, Belmont Stakes winner Palace Malice, Breeders' Cup Classic winner Vino Rosso, and champions Good Magic and Stellar Wind.

Owner Gary West told Bloodhorse that Fighting Mad would be boarded at Dell Ridge Farm in Lexington, Ky.

Read more at Daily Racing Form and BloodHorse.

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