Mshawish Proves Like Father Like Son

“Like father, like son” is a phrase that held good when Mshawish contested the GI Donn H. three days ago. In powering clear in this Grade I dirt contest, the 6-year-old emulated his sire Medaglia d'Oro, winner of the 2004 Donn as a prelude to his second in Pleasantly Perfect's G1 Dubai World Cup.

There is, though, one major difference between the two. Whereas Medaglia d'Oro never tackled turf, his son was having only his third start on the main track. Having made his debut over Chantilly's Polytrack in 2012, Mshawish then made 19 straight appearances on turf, most notably winning the GI Gulfstream Park Turf H. a year before his Donn success.

With Medaglia d'Oro as his sire and daughters of Thunder Gulch, Storm Cat and Seeking the Gold as his first three dams, there was always a good chance that Mshawish would handle a dirt track.

Arguably it was more surprising that Medaglia d'Oro was never tried on turf. His sire El Prado was a Group 1 winner on turf, as were El Prado's parents Sadler's Wells and Lady Capulet, and Medaglia d'Oro's dam Cappucino Bay gained four of her five successes on turf. However, Edmund A. Gann's colorbearer had already demonstrated his potential on dirt for trainer David Vance before his transfer to Bobby Frankel, with the Triple Crown beckoning. But why would Medaglia d'Oro's connections need to contemplate running him on turf when the rewards were so much greater on dirt? He finally retired with earnings of around $5.75 million.

Mshawish is living proof of Medaglia d'Oro's ability to sire high-class turf performers–as are Passion For Gold, Marketing Mix, Coffee Clique, C.S. Silk, Lochte and his Australian son Vancouver, who is being campaigned in Europe this year. This adds up to a pretty impressive tally of Grade I turf winners, but it is noticeable that it is Medaglia d'Oro's dirt performers which tend to dominate the Racing Post's list of Medaglia d'Oro's highest-rated progeny.

The table-toppers are Rachel Alexandra (129), Plum Pretty (121) and Warrior's Reward (121) and they are closely followed, on 119, by Songbird. This potentially exceptional filly completed a tremendous Saturday graded double for the Darley stallion when she maintained her unbeaten record with another impressive victory, this time in the GII Las Virgenes S. The Racing Post ratings also have Mshawish on 119, the turf horse Passion For Gold on 118, the same mark as the all-weather Grade I winner Violence. Then comes Valid, who has chased home Mshawish in each of his Gulfstream Park dirt victories.

An interesting aspect of Medaglia d'Oro's career is that he has been based at three different studs (Hill 'n' Dale, Stonewall Farm and Darley, with the move to Darley coming late in his fifth season, following Rachel Alexandra's eye-opening exploits). And his eight crops aged three or over were sired at quite a wide range of fees. The first five were sired when his advertised fee was $40,000 or less (his fee was raised to $60,000 late in his fifth season). The next three were sired at $100,000. Consequently, when I reviewed Mshawish's pedigree following his Gulfstream Park Turf H., I made a point of looking to see how his graded/group winners were distributed among these crops.

I pointed out that his magnificent first crop had set the bar very high. This crop contained no fewer than eight graded winners, headed by the Grade I scorers Rachel Alexandra Gabby's Golden Gal, C.S. Silk and Warrior's Reward. Incidentally, the stakes winners from this first crop also included Renda, dam of the high-class but ill-fated sprinter Rock Fall.

As Medaglia d'Oro's next three crops were a good deal smaller than his 145-strong first crop, he was never likely to match those highly impressive initial statistics–and he didn't. He still did very well, though, adding nine graded/group winners to his tally, including the Grade I winners Champagne d'Oro, Passion For Gold, Marketing Mix and Plum Pretty.

However, it was his fifth crop–the one sired largely at Stonewall prior to his switch to Darley–which has proved the most fruitful. Mshawish and his rival Valid rank among the extraordinary total of 13 graded/group winners which have emerged from this 2010 crop's 156 named foals–that's more than 8%. Four of them have won at Grade I level.

Of course Medaglia d'Oro was tough and durable–he was five when he won the Donn H.–and his 2010 crop shows that he is very capable of passing on this durability. Mshawish and Valid were among his eight graded winners at the age of five last year, along with Coffee Clique, Gold Medal Dancer, Golden Lad, Golden Sabre, Lochte and Yahilwa.

Last year I wrote “when a stallion's fee jumps considerably to $100,000, it is only natural that everyone expects him to do even better than before. As I am convinced that most stallions are heavily dependent on the quality of their mares, I too am expecting an avalanche of top winners from Medaglia d'Oro's six-figure crops. But it is worth remembering that it is hard to improve on perfection–or near perfection–so Medaglia d'Oro faced a tough task in trying to fulfil these heightened expectations. Also, it wasn't just Medaglia d'Oro's fee and location that had changed. The chances are that, with considerable support from the Maktoum family, there was also a change in the type of mare he received.”

So how are these three $100,000 crops faring a year further down the line?

The answer is that the first two have been largely unspectacular. The French Group 3 winner Earnshaw is the only graded/group winner to emerge so far from the 119 named foals in the 2011 crop, but this crop also includes three Grade I-placed animals in Fast Anna (now part of the stallion team at Three Chimneys), Savings Account and Miss Besilu.

The 2012 crop has done better, with four graded winners– Sentiero Italia, Imperia, Mrs McDougal and Mexican Gold–among the 120 named foals, but none of them has yet enjoyed Grade I success. Although that's two consecutive crops without a Grade I winner, the situation could easily change, thanks to the ability of Medaglia d'Oro's progeny to shine after the age of three.

Fortunately the 2013 crop has already produced its first Grade I winner, in the shape of the highly exciting filly Songbird–the subject in yesterday's TDN of Bill Finley's well-argued plea for her to be allowed to contest the Kentucky Derby. Fox Hill's star is one of eight fillies among Medaglia d'Oro's total of 13 Grade I winners and we have already seen Rachel Alexandra defeat the Kentucky Derby winner to land the Preakness.

There is a pedigree link between Songbird and Rachel Alexandra. Songbird's dam Ivanavinalot was sired by West Acre, a son of Forty Niner, whereas Rachel Alexandra's dam Lotta Kim was sired by Roar, another son of Forty Niner.

West Acre never raced, but earned his chance as a stallion in Florida on the strength of his bloodlines. With a son of Mr. Prospector as his sire and Narrate as his dam, he was a three-parts-brother to two notable Mr. Prospector mares in Preach, dam of Pulpit, and her sister Yarn, dam of Tale of the Cat.

Ivanavinalot, of course, was also hard to beat as a 2-year-old. Successful in five of her six starts at that age, including the valuable My Dear Girl S., she received a weight of 110 on the 2002 Experimental Free Handicap. She went on to win the GII Bonnie Miss S. over a mile and an eighth. Add the fact that both of her grandsires, Forty Niner and Deputy Minister, had form over a mile and a quarter and there is reason for hoping that Songbird will stay a mile and a quarter, if asked–especially when Forty Niner and Deputy Minister both had a Belmont S. winner to their credit.