Saturday, August 17, in the space of little more than thirty minutes, a remarkable thing happened. Two Grade One races were run, the Del Mar Oaks, on turf, won by Cambier Parc with an explosive turn of foot, making her rivals look like nags down the stretch, and the Pacific Classic S., won easily by Higher Power.

Why is this remarkable?

Because anyone who has ever doubted the greatness of Medaglia D’Oro needs to cease and desist. On turf and on dirt, fillies and colts, Medaglia D’Oro gets runners. This back-to-back demonstration of his magnificence only underscores what astute buyers with big checkbooks attending yearling and two-year-old sales already know. That’s why Medaglia D’Oro’s progeny sell for millions to big agents like David Ingordo (Higher Power) who paid $250,000 for the now Grade One winning colt, and big owners like Larry Best (Cambier Parc), who paid $1,250,000 for the yearling filly out of Canadian Horse of the Year Sealy Hill. Both investments look like gold today. As does a breeding for $150,000 to the twenty-year-old stallion himself, who stands at Darley in Lexington, Kentucky.

Stakes winners such as Mshawish and Passion for Gold have already underscored the cross of Medaglia D’Oro on Thunder Gulch mares, so Cambier Parc, out of a Point Given mare (himself a son of Thunder Gulch) is no surprise. As well, Medaglia D’Oro likes another dose of Northern Dancer for his Sadler’s Wells sireline to connect with, and Cambier Parc provides that via Storm Bird, just as Higher Power provides that via Nijinsky II. It must be noted what close genetic relatives Storm Bird and Nijinsky II are to understand how well they cross with Medaglia D’Oro’s own Northern Dancer line.

What’s looking like a new trend, however, is how much Medaglia D’Oro likes to see Seattle Slew in his mares. Higher Power is out of the Seattle Slew mare Alternate, herself the dam of young, successful sire and millionaire Alternation. Cambier Parc’s second dam is the Boston Harbor mare Boston Twist. Boston Harbor, a son of Capote, is therefore a grandson of Seattle Slew, and also provides another cross of Northern Dancer through Vice Regent. Not that this combination is unprecedented: one has only to look at the pedigree of multiple Grade One winner and millionaire Plum Pretty to see that she is out of an A.P. Indy mare, and graded stakes winner and millionaire Al Khali is out of a Capote mare. But given yesterday’s results, this cross seems to be on the rise.

-- Roberta Smoodin