Valid took command at the start and never looked back as he rolled to a sharp one-and-a-half-length victory in the G3 Skip Away Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Team Colors, a son of the late Darley stallion, Street Cry, closed well to take second.
The six-year-old gelded son of Medaglia d’Oro entered the Skip Away off a troubled third-place finish in the G2 Gulfstream Park Handicap March 5. The victory improved Valid’s 2016 record to one win, two seconds, and a third from four starts.
Bred in Virginia by Edward P. Evans, Valid was a $500,000 Keeneland September yearling. He is out of the stakes-winning mare, Grand Prayer, and is a half-brother to G1 winner Malibu Prayer.
Medaglia d’Oro was the sire of 29 Stakes winners in 2015 including Eclipse Champion juvenile filly Songbird, G1 Golden Slipper winner Vancouver, and Mshawish, winner of the G1 Gulfstream Park Turf Handicap. In 2016, Medaglia d’Oro has sired Graded Stakes winners Mshawish, winner of the G1 Donn Handicap, Songbird, winner of the G2 Las Virgenes and G3 Santa Ysabel, and Astern, winner of both the G2 Silver Slipper and G3 Kindergarten Stakes in Australia.
