Medaglia d'Oro Sold!

[Pirateer]

What will this mean? Is this "big news" like JJ buying RA?

Or yet another fabulous stallion bought by overseas $$$.

Bloodhorse says he'll go to Darley in Lexington?

[Glimmerglass]

He's already been shipped to Darley’s Jonabell Farm near Lexington.

"Mo" is no dummy and he saw the potency of him throwing fast girls (http://www.brisnet.com/cgi-bin/editorial/news/article.cgi?id=15267)

"Sheikh Mohammed has been following Medaglia d'Oro's stud career with great interest and has been most impressed not only by the likes of Rachel Alexandra and many other exciting prospects in his first crop which are now three-year-olds, but also by the quality of yearlings that we have seen at public auction," said John Ferguson, Sheikh Mohammed's Bloodstock Advisor.

The headline from just a couple weeks ago in the DRF: May 22 "Medaglia d'Oro producing fast fillies" (http://www.drf.com/news/article/103881.html)

He stood for $40k at Stonewall. All of Medaglia d'Oro's seven stakes winners are female.

[Glimmerglass]

Per the DRF (http://drf.com/news/article/104390.html) in regard to the high-bid purse of d'Oro's colt from the Fasig-Tipton's Calder select 2-year old sale:

"He has been renamed Al Zir," said Ferguson, and he is going well. Sheikh Mohammed believes that Medaglia d'Oro has a very exciting future ahead of him."

"Medaglia d'Oro will continue to breed mares that are already booked to him at Jonabell," said Darley representative Olly Tait, "but we haven't set a fee going forward. We are honoring the contracts Stonewall entered into in regards to the 2009 season."

Tait said Medaglia d'Oro will cover more than 150 mares this year.

(Alas away goes the Paul Simon joke ....)

[kcmel]

Well, he'll always be Medaglia d'Oro to me!

[mintano]

By the way, as is par for the course with the Arabic ownership, your man has lost the "coffee name". Although with 150 coverings he'll need more then one shot of espresso!

Per the DRF (http://drf.com/news/article/104390.html)



So henceforth you Call Me Al (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULjCSK0oOlI) although I don't think Chevy Chase is working at Darley ;)

Al Zir is a 2yo they purchased at Fasig-Tipton Calder, they renamed the 2yo 1/2 brother to Midas Eyes who is sired by Medaglia d'Oro.

[Glimmerglass]

Al Zir is a 2yo they purchased at Fasig-Tipton Calder, they renamed the 2yo 1/2 brother to Midas Eyes who is sired by Medaglia d'Oro.

Doh! Huge mistake on my part :D The problem of multi-tasking

I'll adjust ....

[Mara]

I was worried he was heading to Japan.

[tmo0hul]

I had gotten wind of this on Monday. It is a great move. Darley will be able to support him with great mares. Haysfield certainly needed the money... Most impressed with Santulli's negotiations to be able to retain 20% of him. Generally Darley will only purchase 100% interest in a horse.

Mara - there was never any chance of that. Darley is the only single entity with enough cash right now to make this kind of deal. I doubt that Japan could put together more than $10M for a stallion right now...

[mintano]

Doh! Huge mistake on my part :D The problem of multi-tasking

I'll adjust ....

lol I assumed the same when I skimmed the article but then I read it through and figured it out. ;)

[vineyridge]

I've been reading that Dubai is in serious economic difficulties right now. Although with the price of oil going back up--is Dubai an oil producing country?--maybe things are better. Almost all of the foreigners who were doing the actual work there have been sent home.

Sheikh Mo better watch out for a Dubai based fundamentalist Moslem movement, which would be helped enormously by his incredibly expensive involvement with horses. Keeping on keeping on the way he is during these times smacks of French royalty pre-1789 Revolution.

[Las Olas]

I had gotten wind of this on Monday. It is a great move. Darley will be able to support him with great mares. Haysfield certainly needed the money... Most impressed with Santulli's negotiations to be able to retain 20% of him. Generally Darley will only purchase 100% interest in a horse.


Unlikely there was any negotiation. Most of the syndicate agreements I have dealt with cannot force a shareholder to sell. A majority can move the horse and make it unappealing for a shareholder to stay in (such as a regional move), or make it lucrative enough to sell, but rarely can they force you to sell your share.

Weisbord/Santualli are the types that Darley would want to stay in anyway (Weisbord owns the TDN), and Darley's go-to guy used to work for Weisbord.

[vineyridge]

Do y'all reckon one of the big racing interests like the Sheikhs or Coolmore or the Aga Khan will make Mrs. Whitney an offer she can't refuse for Birdstone?

[Madeline]

Do y'all reckon one of the big racing interests like the Sheikhs or Coolmore or the Aga Khan will make Mrs. Whitney an offer she can't refuse for Birdstone?

I'm not sure that that number exists...

[LaurieB]

Birdstone and Medaglia D'Oro are two totally different types of horses in looks, in pedigree, and in what they're producing. The only thing they have in common is that this year their offspring have done similarly well on Derby, Preakness, and Belmonts days.

The fact that Sheikh Mohammed wanted one of them doesn't in any way indicate to me that he must also be interested in the other. :confused:

[vineyridge]

I was thinking Sheikh Hamdan or one of the Saudi princes, as well as Sheikh Mo. The Aga Khan mostly breeds his own, doesn't he? :)

I do agree that they are very different pedigrees and would seem to need very different mares.

[LaurieB]

I was thinking Sheikh Hamdan or one of the Saudi princes, as well as Sheikh Mo. The Aga Khan mostly breeds his own, doesn't he? :)

I do agree that they are very different pedigrees and would seem to need very different mares.

For any breeder who does a lot of racing in Europe, a stallion by El Prado would have a lot of appeal. A stallion by Grindstone, much less so.