Classic Empire: Road to the Kentucky Derby

Classic Empire winning the Breeders' Cup Juvenile

I Do not own this video, it is from the Breeders' Cup World Championships official youtube channel

             With all the amazing two year olds this year, it looks like we are going to have a very competitive field for the 2017 Kentucky Derby (g. I), but my current pick is the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (g. I) champion, Classic Empire. Being on a similar cross to Triple Crown winner American Pharoah, Classic Empire's name suits his Classic pedigree and his race record speaks for itself, being undefeated in every race he completed.

              The recent downgrading of grade one races has left trainers of derby hopefuls in a dilemma considering two major Kentucky Derby preps, the Toyota Blue Grass (g. II) and the Wood Memorial (g. II) have lost their grade one status. In a recent BloodHorse article, it was pointed out by trainer Mark Casse and owner John Oxley that Classic Empire will be using two prep races for the Kentucky Derby, the first being either the Holy Bull stakes (g. II) Feb. 4 or the March. 4 Fountain of Youth Stakes (g. II), although he could potentially run in both with there being a one month gap, but I don't think that's likely. The 1 1/8 mile Toyota Blue Grass stakes at Keeneland was the original choice for Classic Empire's final derby prep but with the downgrade, the April. 1 Fountain of Youth Stakes (g. I) is becoming a consideration to add another g. I to his resume. One of the only factors causing the colt's connections to stick to the Blue Grass is that, according to Casse, the son of Pioneerof The Nile like's the track at Keeneland.

             What the Classic Empire team decide to do will be seen when the time comes, as for now, the colt has not returned to the work tab after his Breeders' Cup victory. Hopefully, he comes back as a stronger three year old, because one thing that concerned me was Casse's statement saying that Classic Empire came out of his last start tired. The other horses I like for the derby are Practical Joke(Into Mischief), trained by Chad Brown, and McCraken(Ghostzapper), trained by Ian Wilkes.

Medaglia D'oro: beyond impressive

Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt

                   One stallion that has never failed to impress me is the great Medaglia D'oro. What can even be said by a stallion that has sired two Kentucky Oaks (G1) winners and would probably have sired three had Songbird ran in this year's running. Already the sire of 82 stakes winners, his stud fee of $150,000 seems like a good value, especially considering that he is almost guaranteed to give a return on the track and in the sales ring. 

                    Medaglia D'oro has a considerable presence in the sales ring with his fair share of sales toppers, especially at Saratoga. This year's total average for 47 yearlings sired by him is $325,052 with his fillies having a higher average at $332,624 for 28 sold. 

                   Medaglia D'oro doesn't only get dirt runners, but is also represented on turf and is the sire of this year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) winner New Money Honey. The filly looks to be a future star with 2 wins and 1 place from 3 starts. It should not be surprising that Medaglia D'oro produces turf horses being from the Sadler's Wells line. His own sire, El Prado, is also the sire of leading North American turf sire Kitten's Joy.

                  The most impressive quality in Medaglia D'oro is what he does for the mares he covers and for their respective owners and breeders. Among his 82 stakes winners, 75% are their dams' best foal. He boasts even better statistics in the sales ring with 92% of his $500,000 plus yearlings being their dams' highest priced foals. 

                   He is also turning out to be a good broodmare sire with a 1.26 AEI. We all know that the chances for a great race mare to become a great broodmare are low, but one of Medaglia D'oro's best offspring, the Kentucky Oaks (G1), Preakness stakes (G1) and Haskell Invitational (G1) winning horse of the year Rachel Alexandra, has defied those odds. Both her foals are winners and her second foal, the G1 winning Rachel's Valentina (Bernardini), is among Medaglia D'oro's current highest earners as a broodmare sire.

                    Medaglia D'oro has two impressive millionaire sons that will stand their first season at stud in 2017 in Mshawish, who stands at Taylor Made Farm, and Vancouver (AUS), who is at Ashford Stud and shuttles to Coolmore Australia for the southern hemisphere breeding season. Hopefully his sons continue his legacy, but his daughters are already making a mark with such mares as rachel Alexandra. Although, she won't be breeding anymore, Rachel Alexandra's full sister, Samantha Nicole, has been bred to Bernardini which means the resulting foal will be a 3/4 sibling to the G1 winning and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) runner up Rachel's Valentina.

                   

Pegasus World Championships: What's to Become?

Photo: Mark J. Terrill

            

                  The first running of the Pegasus World Cup is getting closer and although there are supposed to be 12 horses racing, the world has it's eyes on just two: The richest horse in the world, California Chrome, and his main rival , the incredibly fast three year old who defeated him in the Breeders' Cup Classic. 

   

                  California Chrome will be going into the Jan. 28 Pegasus World Cup with the $100,000 Winter Challenge at Los Alamitos Race Course on Dec. 17 which was customized as a prep race for the final start of the five year old champion. Arrogate's connections have not yet committed him to the race, but it looks very likely that he will run and he is being geared toward it "silently" by Bob Baffert. He likely won't be using a prep race to ready him, but Arrogate has proven that he doesn't need one to run his best seeing as he had a similar gap between his win in the Travers Stakes(G1) and the Breeders' Cup Classic(G1). 

 

               California Chrome breezed five furlongs, handily, earlier today at Los Alamitos in a time of 1:00.40. Arrogate's last workout was on Dec. 1 at Santa Anita where he went an easy four furlongs in 49:00.00. 

                Unfortunately, having the two champions in the starting gate is making it difficult for other owners to enter with nobody willing to pay $1,000,000 for a spot when there is no chance of beating either California Chrome or Arrogate. One other possible candidate in the hearing is Gun Runner who recently claimed grade 1 status in the Clark Handicap(G1) on Nov. 25 where he defeated previous winners of the race in Effinex and Hoppertunity.

               As the race approaches, we will see what other owners step up and buy places for their horses. One thing we can definitely expect is that only top level horses will be entered to run for a chance to win the richest race in the world against to of the best horses in the world.