Tag: Top News

Tuscan Gold A New ‘Rising Star’ For Medaglia d’Oro

Tuscan Gold (Medaglia d'Oro) debuted with an educational–if a bit troubled–fourth-place effort behind sales-topping stablemate and 'TDN Rising Star' Sierra Leone (Gun Runner) and fellow seven-figure seller Change In Command (Into Mischief) going a mile at Aqueduct Nov. 4. Sierre Leone did his part to validate the effort with a near-miss second in the GII Remsen S., while Change of Command has since won twice, including a Jan. 5 allowance at this track, and Tuscan Gold will presumably get his chance to further frank the form after being named a 'TDN Rising Star' himself Wednesday afternoon.

A somewhat surprising 8-5 second choice behind three-start maiden Skip the Line (Into Mischief–Bubbler) at 11-10 and getting Lasix for the first time, Tuscan Gold was toting the Gary Broad/Walmac silks this time around after debuting in the Lawrence colors and was trapped out five deep rounding the first turn while niggled along to keep pace by Tyler Gaffalione. Able to shift in to save some ground midway up the backstretch, the $600,000 Keeneland September grad was soon back into the bridle and was all the way up into third rounding the second bend. Looking a bit one-paced as he tried to get to front-running Skip the Line approaching the stretch, Tuscan Gold was popped the question in earnest and ran away impressively before galloping out with good energy.

Stonestreet bred Tuscan Gold from their very talented Valadorna (Curlin), runner-up to Champagne Room (Broken Vow) in the 2016 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile and–appropriately enough–third in the GII Rachel Alexandra S. at three. A listed winner at the tail end of that season, she posted a career-high in the GIII Hilliard Lyons Doubledogdare S. at four in 2018.

A half-sister to former Chad Brown Grade I winner Complexity (Maclean's Music), Valadorna is also represented by a 2-year-old colt by Uncle Mo and a yearling colt by Tapit. Valadorna was not bred in 2023. Tuscan Gold is a 33rd 'Rising Star' for his recently turned 25-year-old stallion.

7th-Gulfstream, $70,000, Msw, 1-31, 3yo, 1 1/16m, 1:46.42, ft, 6 1/4 lengths.
TUSCAN GOLD, c, 3, by Medaglia d'Oro
1st Dam:  Valadorna (GSW & GISP, $670,265), by Curlin
2nd Dam: Goldfield, by Yes It's True
3rd Dam: Folly Dollar, by Digression
Sales history: $600,000 Ylg '22 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 2-1-0-0, $47,100.  Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
O-William H Lawrence, Walmac Farm & Stonestreet Stables LLC; B-Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings LLC (KY); T-Chad C Brown.

 

 

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Medaglia d’Oro Filly Delahaye Impressively Wires Gulfstream Allowance

5th-Gulfstream, $72,000, Alw (NW1$X), Opt. Clm ($25,000), 1-31, 4yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16mT, 1:40.88, fm, 1 1/4 lengths.
DELAHAYE (f, 4, Medaglia d'Oro–Bella Carina, by War Front) sat a no-cover trip three and four wide on her debut over this course last February, but jockey Javier Castellano lost the crop with judgment day approaching and the filly went down to a narrow defeat behind the future MSP Love Appeals (Speightstown). Away for 8 1/2 months thereafter, the $550,000 Keeneland September yearling raced more prominently in an Aqueduct maiden and shot clear late to graduate by a handy 3 1/4 lengths at 65 cents on the dollar when last seen Nov. 5. Favored here at an arguably overlaid 9-10 and carrying the Three Chimneys colors for the first time, Delahaye tugged her way to the front without expending much energy and led her rivals along through sedate fractions of :24.01 and :48.92. Castellano sat hard against Delahaye around the turn, cut the ribbons once heads were turned for home and she easily held sway to the wire. She covered her final 2 1/2 furlongs in :28.20 and sprinted the final sixteenth in a very slick :5.50. Delahaye is the ninth winner worldwide from 11 runners bred on this cross, a number that includes the stakes winners Ticker Tape Home and Golden Canary. Ben Leon's Besilu Stables acquired the stakes-winning second dam Grand Prayer (Grand Slam) in foal to Medaglia d'Oro for an even $1 million from the Ned Evans dispersal at Keeneland November in 2011, a little more than a year after the mare's daughter Malibu Prayer (Malibu Moon) won the GI Ruffian H. for Evans and Mark Hennig. Grand Prayer's value appreciated further still when her Medaglia d'Oro foal of 2010, Valid, became a three-time graded winner and Grade I-placed on the dirt. Malibu Prayer is also the dam of the MGSP Grand Love, whose sire Gun Runner is out of Quiet Giant (Giant's Causeway), a $3-million purchase by Besilu from the same dispersal. Leon also paid a sales-topping $8.5 million for champion Royal Delta (Empire Maker). Bella Carina is the dam of a 2-year-old Not This Time colt that was bought back on a bid of $350,000 at Keeneland September last fall and a yearling colt by Gun Runner. She was not bred last season. Sales history: $550,000 Ylg '21 KEESEP. Lifetime Record: 3-2-1-0, $104,650. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by FanDuel TV.
O-William H Lawrence & Three Chimneys Farm; B-Three Chimneys Farm LLC (KY); T-Chad C Brown.

 

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Weir Appointed Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga Director of Strategic Growth

Kim Weir, former major gifts fundraiser at the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation, has joined Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga (THS) as Director of Strategic Growth. Weir will work closely with Dr. Erin Sisk, Co-Founder of Therapeutic Horses of Saratoga, and the THS Board of Directors and staff to develop and implement a strategic growth plan for the Saratoga Springs-based impact sector organization.

Weir duties will include development the THS fundraising strategy and expanding the engagement of the organization's herd of retired racehorses through therapy and program utilization

“I am certain that our team will immediately benefit from Kim's diverse business background, successful fundraising skills and her deep relationships across the Thoroughbred industry” said  Dr. Erin Sisk. “Kim's understanding of the racing landscape and personal commitment to sharing the gift of horses with all who need them, will provide our young and growing organization with an invaluable new asset to help us realize our bold vision for the countless lives we can heal and help with the therapeutic benefits of our horses.”

Weir also served as the Deputy Executive Director of the Mid-Atlantic Venture Association in Washington, DC.

The San Diego native graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia with a B.A. in Spanish and International Relations and received her M.B.A from the Mason School of Business at the College of William and Mary. She and her husband, Bob, moved to Saratoga Springs from the Washington D.C. area in 2018.

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Letter To The Editor: The Implications of Choosing Not To Run in This Year’s Derby

The Derby is not just any race. It is the pinnacle of American horse racing from virtually every angle: breeding, owning, training, riding and yes, even betting (who doesn't want bragging rights for picking the winner?).

And the Derby race/event has grown to such importance for the entire industry (the hoopla around the Derby as an event got bigger in the preceding years even while horse racing has been struggling), that its import flows far beyond the private parameters of ownership of Churchill Downs, Inc. Derby day is an industry-wide event even though it is run by a private entity. And herein emerges the problem that begs for a resolution.

The owners of horses trained by Bob Baffert, in refusing to switch barns in order to get their horses eligible to the Derby race, are, in essence, calling out the management of the Derby race by Churchill and boycotting the race.

I write this from the perspective of years of graduate study in political economy during my Ph.D. work. These owners have made (and undoubtedly not deliberately so) a huge first step in challenging the balance of power in the industry between owners/breeders and the racetracks.

Churchill, in arbitrarily extending the ban on their trainer and shortening the time for the required transfer of their horses from their chosen trainer to someone else (the transfer date was conspicuously set days before the Robert Lewis prep race at Santa Anita), had, apparently gone too far. Churchill was intrinsically questioning both the owner's management and judgment in the care of their horses. The owners, in turn, by not transferring their horses to another trainer and thus choosing not to run in the Derby, are questioning the management of the Derby race itself by Churchill Inc.

The implications from this small group of owner's decisions go far beyond themselves, their trainer and Churchill itself. Not only are these owners challenging Churchill's authority to interfere with the management and use of their property rights, by boycotting this year's Derby, they are preventing (again not deliberately) the breeders of the horses in question from participating in the Derby.

This battle of the power of Churchill Inc. over the Derby race with these owners has rippling effects on the breeding industry itself.  You breed a top horse, it gets sold and then doesn't get to participate in the Derby because of a battle between Churchill Inc. and a specific trainer that leads to the owners withholding the horse.

This situation needs to be resolved.

And the power of Churchill Inc. over a race that is now, de facto, an industry race (while proprietary to Churchill Inc.) needs to be curbed so that any similar situation doesn't re-occur. Decisions directly impacting the Derby race need to be subject to countervailing power by the key interest groupings in the industry-with representatives actually in the boardroom concerning key decisions on the Derby race. Such arrangements are not uncommon in business. Even the trainers do not have a voice regarding their own eligibility and seemingly arbitrary decisions regarding their participation.

The Derby is the Derby because everyone wants to run their top horses if they are ready for the race. As soon as capable, top horses are not put on the path to the Derby, the race can lose its significance before too long. The Derby race is too important to the industry to be allowed to be run without Industry-wide input to assure its continued impact.
–Armen Antonian Ph.D

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