Tag: medallion racing

‘She’s Been a Superstar For Us This Year’: Fortuna Out to Favour The Brave

ARCADIA, USA–Bar those who have raced recently in the US, the European horses arrived at Santa Anita on Sunday evening, with their trainers mostly following on over the next few days. One early bird at the track on Sunday morning was Donnacha O'Brien, who is entitled to want to soak up as much of the atmosphere as he can this week as he has brought a Group 1-winning juvenile to be his first runner at the Breeders' Cup.

Only Bob Baffert has accrued more prize-money earnings than Donnacha's father Aidan O'Brien in the 39 previous runnings of the Breeders' Cup, with the Irishman's 16 winners having contributed towards a haul of more than $30 million. Brother Joseph O'Brien, too, has his name on the board with one winner from five starters to date. That success, in the Breeders' Cup Mile also at Santa Anita back in 2019, came with Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}), whose success was followed up in the same race the next year by her half-brother Order Of Australia (Ire) (Australia {GB}), trained by Aidan. 

What made those two victories all the more special was the fact that the siblings were bred by Aidan and Annemarie O'Brien under their Whisperview Trading banner, and now it is the turn of his Donnacha to attempt to secure another Breeders' Cup winner for his parents as breeders with Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio). More importantly, however, the filly will be carrying the hopes of a large number of American owners in the Juvenile Fillies Turf on Friday.

“We've been coming to the Breeders' Cup since as along as I can remember, and I've been lucky enough to ride at a few, but this is my first one as a trainer, so it's exciting. I haven't been to the Breeders' Cup in the last few years because I haven't had a runner, so it's nice to be back,” said O'Brien, the former dual champion jockey in Ireland who retired from race-riding in 2019

Porta Fortuna remains confined to barracks until being allowed on to the main track on Tuesday morning.

“She travelled well and is in good form, and seems to have settled in well,” he continued. “She's been a superstar for us this year. To win at Ascot was fantastic, but she had two wins before Ascot, so to still be going, and to have run in three Group 1s in a row, and against the boys as well, she's danced every dance and she's a very tough filly. We're very lucky to have her, she's been great for us.”

That she has. From her maiden win at the Curragh on April 16, Porta Fortuna went straight into Pattern company for her first run in the colours of her new team of owners to win the G3 Fillies' Sprint S. at Naas, enjoying the perfect tune up before her first spot of travelling to Ascot for the G3 Albany S. Come August, she was chasing home Bucanero Fuerte (Fr) to be second in the G1 Phoenix S. before taking third in the G1 Moyglare Stud S. Finally she secured her own Group 1 success on her return to Britain for the Cheveley Park S. at Newmarket. She steps up now for a tight, turning mile, the first time she has gone beyond seven furlongs. 

Her trainer reported, “She has taken every run very well. She's not a filly who needs a lot of work at home. She's not difficult to train, her races kind of bring her along.

“She is owned by Steve Weston, Barry Fowler, Dean Reeves and Medallion Thoroughbreds, as well, which is a big syndicate. They are all American, and from the moment they bought her this was the dream and it has just worked out incredibly well. It's great to be able to bring her over to the US for them.”

The success of Porta Fortuna has also prompted greater involvement in O'Brien's stable from the ownership group, who bought into the filly through agent Mark McStay.

He added, “They bought her after she won a maiden, and they have bought some yearlings for me this year.

“In Ireland there's a small pool of owners, but internationally there's obviously a big interest in racing. This isn't something we've done on purpose, we were just lucky enough to get involved with these guys and it's brilliant to have some success for them.”

The one question that remains is how Porta Fortuna will cope with a two-turn mile after the wide open expanses of the Curragh plains and Newmarket Heath.

“We won't be sure until we go and do it, so we'll see,” said O'Brien. “It's going to be a lot different for her. Every race she's had so far has been on a straight track but she trains round a left-handed bend every day at home, so she's well used to turning left. She's obviously going up in trip as well, but on tight tracks, a mile around here is going to be like seven in Europe, and she has stayed seven before. We're not sure until we try but I feel she should handle it.”

 

The post ‘She’s Been a Superstar For Us This Year’: Fortuna Out to Favour The Brave appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Searching For Another Porta Fortuna – Medallion Team Make Trip To Goffs Orby

Medallion Racing's Phillip Shelton has explained how the sweet taste of Royal Ascot success with Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio) has made the ownership group hungrier than ever, which has lead to the racing manager for the American-based outfit make his first trip to the Goffs Orby Sale this week. 

The plan, according to Shelton, is to purchase three or four yearlings to support Donnacha O'Brien, the mastermind behind that brilliant G3 Albany S. success back in June. 

Medallion Racing has already been on the scoresheet at the Goffs UK Sale at Doncaster this year. Fillies by Ten Sovereigns and Australia were added to the team for £82,000 and £100,000 respectively through bloodstock agent Mark McStay. 

Up until this point, Shelton and McStay had been working solely to snap up form horses, with Porta Fortuna the most high profile recruit. 

However, given the success they enjoyed this year with that star filly, who is on target for the G1 Cheveley Park S. next, Shelton and his investors have decided to go right to the very source and try and find a group of talented yearlings to go into training with O'Brien. 

He explained, “Generally, we have almost exclusively been buying form horses out of Europe but, due to the success we have been enjoying, we decided to make the trip to the Orby to try and buy some yearlings. We brought a large group of people over to Ireland for the Irish Derby weekend this year and the appetite has continued to grow. We wanted to get more involved in running horses in Europe and, at some point, bringing some back to America. I'm definitely looking forward to the Orby.”

Porta Fortuna wasn't Medallion's original pick. The owners tend to try and buy horses who have finished placed in Europe, rather than those who have won, because the option to return to America for lucrative maiden races is always there. However, such was the style in which Porta Fortuna won her maiden at the Curragh on debut, Shelton was convinced that she was the right filly to add to the roster. 

Phillip Shelton | Medallion Racing

Shelton said, “What I would say is that we are always looking at what the next two or three months looks like for any horse we buy in America or in Europe. At the time, we had Del Mar in the back of our minds and said that, if we could find something that had finished second or third on debut, we could go to the Group 3 at Naas and, if you break your maiden there it's a home run deal. If you just run well, you can go to Ascot knowing that you will not be a 100-1 shot. We just didn't fall in love with the second and third-placed horses in Porta Fortuna's race so we decided to buy the winner instead. 

“Another thing I would say is, Mark and I are constantly back and forth about what could be bought and what the buzz is on certain horses in Ireland. We try to get a good read on the form and, visually, we were just so impressed with Porta Fortuna on debut. Luckily, we have a lot of customers and partners who said, 'hey, if you guys like it, we'll jump in.'” But all the credit needs to go to Donnacha and his team for having her in great form all year and fingers crossed she can run well in the Cheveley Park and then on to the Breeders' Cup.”

The equine talent is not the only lure for Shelton as he describes the ownership experience that O'Brien has provided all of the investors at Medallion Racing to be hands down on another planet to what owners in America have become accustomed to with the bigger barns.

He said, “Working with Donnacha has been an unbelievable experience for us. Donnacha is very hungry and, what I like about everything is that his communication and how he explains what he is thinking about doing with the filly has been absolutely first class. We use The Racing Manager for communication with all of our partners and, when we came to Ireland, Donnacha spent a bunch of time with us. The biggest problem a lot of the American trainers have is they have so many horses and they are set up in so many different locations. Frankly, the communication is just not very good. You very rarely get any form of content from any trainer in America. But the communication with Donnacha has been very good. 

“Take Porta Fortuna, there are four partners involved in her at 25 per cent apiece. We want Donnacha to drive the bus but we have guys who are putting up real money and all they want is to be included in the conversation and have their opinion be heard. It doesn't mean Donnacha has to do it, not at all.”

He added, “In America, with the bigger stables, you are just being dictated to. Donnacha will send multiple voice messages about what he thinks of a race, what he thinks about tactics and he'll just ping that across. That means that I can just circulate that among our partners and it has been a complete game-changer. 

“We want to deliver a very high level racing experience. We've had roughly 300 starters in the last seven years and 25 per cent of those have come in Grade 1s. It's a very high level experience and, frankly, every horse I have had in training in Ireland, be it with Donnacha, Johnny Murtagh or Paddy Twomey, the communication and the level of involvement we get is significantly higher than in America.”

There is said to be a typically-strong travelling contingent of American buyers making their way to the Goffs Orby Sale this week. Their presence at the sale in recent years has provided a fascinating subplot and Shelton says he is hoping that this trip marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for Medallion Racing. 

He said, “We'll be looking to buy three or four more at Goffs this week. We want to be averaging about €150,000 but we might partner up on one if we really like it. I know it is a sale that has been well-attended in the past by American buyers and last year Goffs had Niall Brennan, the Gladwells and David Ingordo. The reality in America right now is that dirt horses are very hard to keep sound and these turf horses are becoming more popular. We're looking forward to this week and the trip is all about how we can best serve our partners.”

Shelton added, “It is in our best interests to keep our partners happy and we try to deliver something they could never do on their own, whether it's leveraging our connections or utilising our experience in the industry. I always say that, if you want to go and buy a Porsche, all you need is the money to do it. There's no secret formula. 

“If you want to go to Ascot or run at the Breeders' Cup, it's going to take a significant amount of capital, but we can bring that down significantly for some people and there's no better example than Porta Fortuna. How many people dream of winning a race at Royal Ascot and how many dollars do they spend trying to chase that dream? All of our guys got to experience that for pennies on the dollar.”

 

The post Searching For Another Porta Fortuna – Medallion Team Make Trip To Goffs Orby appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Porta Fortuna Is Medallion Racing’s Lucky Charm at Ascot

Ever since Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio)'s win in the G3 Coolmore Stud Irish EBF Fillies Sprint S. at Naas last month, bloodstock agent Mark McStay had been pestering Taylor Made's Mark Taylor to make his plans to come to Royal Ascot. But the Taylor family is more known for probity and hard work than they are flights of fancy, and Taylor demurred, citing preparations for upcoming sales in America.

But when Porta Fortuna launched a determined bid and got up for the win in Friday's G3 Albany S. at Ascot to give Taylor Made's Medallion Racing partnership a win at the royal meeting, Taylor couldn't be blamed for maybe having thought twice about his decision.

“It's been two and a half hours, and I think my blood pressure has just come down to the point where I can have a conversation with you that you can understand,” said Taylor, reached after the race. “I'm a very superstitious person, so the agent who helped us find this filly, Mark McStay, he has been texting me literally three times a week since she won her last race, saying, `you've got to come, you've got to come, you've got to come.' And historically, any time I go to great lengths to see a race, things never go well. So, I've got a lot going on here, I've got to get ready for sales season, I'm not going. When I was watching the race, there were 18 horses, some of the best two-year-olds that have come out in Europe so far are in this race, and I thought if we could crack the top four it would be a great accomplishment. I was trying to temper everybody's expectations, and then when she put on that move and put everybody away. It was just surreal. I was watching it, saying, `is this really happening?' It was fantastic.”

Medallion and its partners-Barry Fowler, Steve Weston and Dean Reeves-bought the filly after the win at Naas, telling the TDN at the time that the partnership tries to buy one or two horses a year in Europe.

“I was very happy for our partners, both our partners in Medallion Racing that enable our team to go build the stable and also the people that come in alongside us like Barry Fowler, Steve Weston, and Dean Reeves because they put their confidence in us. With Steve Weston and with Barry, we've bought into some horses that have gotten hurt, didn't pan out, but they've stuck with us, and to see Steve Weston's silks cross the finish line at Ascot and to see him get to lead that filly in, it just really made me so happy because he's such a loyal guy, he's such a just great human being. I was crying for him, I was just so happy for Steve.”

Mark Taylor | Fasig-Tipton photo

Taylor said that Medallion has around 25 partners, each of which invests $50,000 or more in the partnership. The group raises from $1.2 million to $1.7 million every two years, only buys proven horses, and every partner is in on every horse.

“Our model is we buy all female horses and we buy horses that have already run who we believe have graded stakes talent off of what they've done so far. A lot of times, we have to pay; we're not stealing these horses. Everybody would like to go in and buy them, but we're also willing to let the existing partners stay in. A lot of times, we can leave them with the same trainer.”

In Porta Fortuna's case, they left her with her trainer, Donnacha O'Brien, son of the original owner, Annemarie O'Brien. Taylor said he felt that it was accommodations like that which help them to get a leg up on others who might be offering more.

“We try to be very accommodating partners, which allows us to get a crack,” he said. “Even though somebody else might offer more money, they're going to take the whole horse and do their own thing. So we try to be more flexible and just allow our people to participate on stages like Royal Ascot or the Kentucky Oaks or the Breeders' Cup or Grade Ones at big racetracks. Our theory is that once people get a taste of that, they might want to play on their own and take it to a larger level, or they might want to stay with this model. We have had some people that have gone outside and tried to do it themselves, which is great. It drives investment in the game.”

Porta Fortuna was well-represented by her American owners at Ascot this week, with Medallion's Philip Shelton as well as Reeves, Fowler and Weston, and at least six additional Medallion members on hand for the win. Ironically enough, it wasn't Taylor Made's only connections to succeed at Ascot this week. Other Taylor Made customers, Black Ridge Stable, won the Queen Mary with Crimson Advocate (Nyquist).

“We were going crazy for her when they won the other day, and then in my superstitious mind, I was like, `Well, there's no way two horses are going to win at Ascot with Taylor Made connections.' For it to happen twice, it was beyond words.”

In addition to creating and nurturing new owners, Medallion also has a goal of showing off the sport at its best.

“In Medallion, we want to educate the people who come into the sport about all aspects of racing, including international racing, and to showcase to them how well these horses are taken care of. So many people look at our sport and say negative comments like, `These horses are just pawns in this big game,' but they're really not. We partner with people and we employ trainers that really care about these horses. And we try to shed light on that anytime we can so that our partners can see these horses are really loved, they're cared about, and we cheer for them and love them whether they win or lose.”

And even if he wasn't on hand, Taylor said he'd celebrate the win in typical Ascot-and typical Taylor–fashion. “I will drink some champagne,” he said. “But I'll wait until 5:00 tonight.”

The post Porta Fortuna Is Medallion Racing’s Lucky Charm at Ascot appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Derby Dreams Come In Due Time

The GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. offers the last round of qualifying points for the GI Kentucky Derby on May 7 and the connections of GII Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth runner-up In Due Time (Not This Time) are still Derby dreaming.

Their 3-year-old chestnut colt has never been off the board in his four career starts and has already earned 20 qualifying points from his second-place finish in the Fountain of Youth. He would still need the 20 points awarded to the Lexington S. winner in order to get a chance at seeing the Kentucky Derby starting gate, but trainer Kelly Breen is confident going into Saturday's race.

“We've had some not-so-great weather here at Keeneland, but he has adapted well,” Breen said. “Last week he breezed at Keeneland over a track labeled muddy. It wasn't the fastest of workouts, it was just a maintenance, but since he's been here he has been doing well.”

With Paco Lopez aboard, In Due Time drew post two in a field of 11 entered in the 1 1/16-mile contest.

“We'll leave it up to Paco,” Breen said when asked how he would like to see the race to play out. “Ideally I'd like to see him forwardly placed because if we ask him for speed, I think he will have the speed. I'd rather not see him get trapped in, but he ran well in a race where he came from off the pace and stayed on the rail saving ground. Whatever it's going to be, we're in Paco's hands.”

In Due Time was a $95,000 2-year-old purchase for Edge Racing, a spinoff of MyRacehorse designed to replicate a more traditional racing partnership. Edge Racing's Joe Moran and Nick Hines picked out the colt at the 2021 OBS April Sale after their partnership enjoyed success that same year with another son of Not This Time, Yes This Time.

“Yes this Time was Edge Racing's second purchase overall, so we had a little bit of comfort there in going with another Not This Time,” Moran explained. “In Due Time just looked like an athlete to us and we got him at an affordable price.”

In Due Time was sent to Breen's barn at Monmouth Park where he was stabled next to none other than Yes This Time.

“They were two peas in a pod,” Breen said. “They were both just happy to be around.”

Yes This Time won the GIII Kent S. at Delaware Park in July and just a few weeks later, In Due Time broke his maiden on debut.

Breen opted to give the colt time off after the win and he resurfaced at Gulfstream in January. He ran third coming off the layoff in a six-furlong allowance, but flourished when given added distance in his next start going a mile, traveling from mid-pack to get the win by almost six lengths.

“He is a horse that thrives for a little bit more distance,” Breen explained. “It was only a one-turn mile, but he showed his ability to relax and rate and he had a pretty good punch.”

The flashy win caught the eye of several more racing partnerships and before the colt's next start, Medallion Racing and Parkland Thoroughbreds had also joined in the ownership.

In Due Time finished second in an eventful GII Fountain of Youth, where his rider Paco Lopez was later suspended for 14 days for careless riding after In Due Time shifted out in the stretch and two jockeys were unseated from their mounts. Breen chose to give his trainee additional recovery time after seeing how the colt came out of the Derby prep.

“It was the first time where I saw that he was a little tired,” Breen said. “He did bounce back within 48 hours, but he's a very on, sort of motivated horse and he was a little knocked out after the race. I know if we were to run well in the Lexington that it's only three weeks until the Derby, but the extended time that he had in between his last race and this race is going to help him perform better.”

In Due Time will be well-supported on Saturday with 25 owners, along with their friends and family, cheering him on at Keeneland.

“We have people coming in from California, Florida, New York and Chicago so it's really cool to see all these people meet up all due to one horse,” Moran said. “Any time we get to compete in these big races–and fingers crossed a win could get us in the Derby– there's nothing more fun than that and to celebrate with more people is even better.”

Perhaps as an added bit of luck, Edge Racing has a second starter at Keeneland this weekend. Escape Route (Hard Spun) was the partnership's first purchase in 2020 and ships in from California to run in the finale on Saturday's card.

Edge Racing was launched in November of 2020 with the goal providing a more in-depth experience for owners buying into a larger ownership stake.

“Edge Racing is more like your traditional syndicate,” Moran explained. “95% of our owners started with MyRacehorse and it's cool to see them take that next step forward. This is our first journey on the Derby trail and it's exciting to be able to do it after such a short period of time.”

Kelly Breen is no stranger to the Triple Crown trail, with his top runners including 2011 GI Belmont S. winner Ruler on Ice (Roman Ruler) and 2011 Kentucky Derby contender and MGSW Pants on Fire (Jump Start), but he can't hide his excitement at the prospect of another Kentucky Derby starter.

“It's been a few years since I have been back,” he admitted. “My kids have never asked about races before, but they are asking if we are we going to the Derby this year. There is nothing here in Kentucky like the Kentucky Derby. Regardless of if we make it to the Derby or not, I believe that he's a nice horse and we'd like to have some fun with him and run in some nice races.”

The post Derby Dreams Come In Due Time appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights