When his two-year-old daughter Renda (now dam of G1 winner Rockwall) won a Listed Stakes at Monmouth on August 23rd, 2008, none could have possibly foreseen the impact that her sire, Medaglia d’Oro, would have on the worldwide racing and breeding scene. Fast forward 3,377 days and another daughter, Ever So Clever, became her sire’s 100th career Stakes winner from around the world when winning the G3 Fantasy Stakes. In addition, with that victory in the Fantasy Stakes, Ever So Clever became the 50th Group/Graded winner for the stallion.
Medaglia d’Oro was represented in his first crop overseas by the phenomenal Rachel Alexandra (Stakes winner number four) who was named the North American Horse of the Year (the only three-year-old filly ever to receive the award) following a hall of fame three-year-old season in 2009. She, too, was a two-year-old Stakes winner in 2008 but it was her undefeated second year that distinguished her among the best fillies to ever race, a year that saw her score five G1 victories.
Medaglia d’Oro’s winners at the elite level have crossed finish lines around the globe, with his success in Australia highlighted by undefeated Australian champion and winner of the G1 Golden Slipper Vancouver (Stakes winner number 60), now standing at stud in the U.S. and Godolphin’s standout Astern (Stakes winner number 86) who took the G1 Golden Rose in outstanding style. The winner of five of his nine starts, Astern retired to stud this year the highest-rated son of Medaglia d’Oro.
After his most recent success in G1 Jenny Wiley Stakes winner Dickinson, a total of seventeen sons or daughters of Medaglia d’Oro have won the highest level, including Champion American filly Songbird (Stakes winner number 78) who was named Eclipse Champion two-year-old of 2015. Like her paternal half-sister and Horse of The Year Rachel Alexandra, truly another for the ages. Most stallions could only hope to get one hall of fame runner but to get two of this calibre in a career is almost unprecedented.
Medaglia d’Oro is set to stand the 2017 breeding season at Kelvinside, for a fee of $110,000.
