Medaglia d’Amour captures stakes debut in Wilshire

Medaglia d’Amour is out of a half-sister to Fraise (Benoit Photo) Kristina Cecil and Zillah Reddam’s MEDAGLIA D’AMOUR (Medaglia d’Oro) remained perfect from three turf starts when landing Saturday’s $100,000 Wilshire H. (G3) at Hollywood Park. Sent off as the 3-1 second choice in her stakes debut, the Ben Cecil filly enjoyed a textbook stalking trip beneath Alonso Quinonez en route to her 1 1/4-length score. Medaglia d’Amour, who was coming off maiden and allowance victories earlier this year at Santa Anita, secured the advantageous second spot early, keeping tabs on the front-running Czechers (Indian Charlie) through fractions of :24, :47 1/5 and 1:10 3/5. On the far turn, Medaglia d’Amour launched her bid, and she put her head in front of the stubborn Czechers at the top of the stretch. Pulling clear inside the final furlong, Medaglia d’Amour completed the firm-turf mile in 1:34 1/5 and furnished mutuels of $8.40, $4.20 and $3.20.

Cat by the Tale (Tale of the Cat), the 2-1 favorite, rallied to grab
second-place honors in a three-way photo. You Lift Me Up (Lord Carson) was a
nose away in third, and Czechers came in a further head adrift in fourth. Cat by
the Tale paid $3.20 and $2.60, while the 7-1 You Lift Me Up returned $4.60. The
$1 exotics were worth $14.50 (exacta), $80.30 (trifecta) and $291 (8-5-1-7
superfecta). Princess Haya (Street Cry [Ire]), Sweeter Still (Ire) (Rock of
Gibraltar [Ire]), Exquisite (NZ) )Golan [Ire]), Dextera (Ger) (Royal Dragon),
April Pride (GB) (Falbrav [Ire]) and Toque de Queda (GB) (Dansili [GB])
concluded the order of finish.

“She’s awesome — something very special,” Quinonez said of Medaglia d’Amour.
“My instructions were to lay right behind the speed. They were going slow, so I
attacked them early. When she made the lead she was going pretty easy. I asked
her to go and she was all business. I worked her last time and she went very
nice, so I knew she was ready for this race.”

Medaglia d’Amour started her career last July in a six-furlong sprint on Del
Mar’s Polytrack, where she wound up eighth. The dark bay was shelved until
February, resurfacing on the Santa Anita turf and dismissing maiden rivals by 3
1/2 lengths. She sailed through an allowance at the same course and one-mile
distance the following month, but she ended up skipping a possible stakes debut
in the April 17 Santa Barbara H. (G2).

“We nominated her to the Santa Barbara,” Cecil said. “We were going to run
her there, but her feet were a little warm. This was the first race I had
targeted, but when the Santa Barbara was coming up light, we thought we might
take a look and go in there. The feet made the decision.”

Three-for-four overall, Medaglia d’Amour more than doubled her bankroll to
$116,200. Bred by the Allen E. Paulson Living Trust in Kentucky, she was sold
for a mere $3,000 as a yearling at Keeneland September, and she failed to reach
her reserve when bringing a $30,000 bid as a two-year-old in training at
Barretts May. The four-year-old is out of the winning Izara (Blushing John),
whose other foals include the stakes-placed Canadian Gem (Tale of the Cat) and
an unraced juvenile filly named Iz R a Zede (Zede).

Izara is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 star and $2.6 million-earner
Fraise (Strawberry Road [Aus]), hero of the 1992 Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1). Izara
is herself a daughter of Zalataia (Fr) (Dictus), who defeated males in the 1983
Oak Tree Invitational (G1).

“Most of her pedigree is grass, so we knew stretching her out and putting her
on the grass was going to be the way to go with her,” Cecil said. “This was only
her fourth start. She’ll do whatever you want. She’s a very easy filly to ride.
She won’t have a problem getting a mile and a quarter down the road. The next
logical step is a mile and an eighth.”