By Jack Werk
On Saturday at Saratoga, Tapit’s Canadian-raced daughter Careless Jewel (click here to view pedigree) won the G1 $600,000 Alabama Stakes by 11 lengths! (Click here to view the chart) Let’s face it, not many fillies win Grade 1 races by margins like that, but another one that does these days is Rachel Alexandra, whose sire is Medaglia d’Oro. Both Tapit and Medaglia d’Oro are 2nd-crop sires, which means their first crop is 3 in 2009. On June 6th, I posted about the duel these two exceptional young guns are involved in, and the gunfight continues! (Click here to read the post from June 6th). According to the Thoroughbred Times 2nd-crop sire list as of Aug. 24, Medaglia d’Oro at No. 1 leads Tapit at No. 2 by progeny earnings of $7,011,617 to $6,530,642!
Both stallions are represented by 10 SWs with Tapit leading Medaglia by 5 Graded SWs to 4! And now with Careless Jewel’s G1 score, Tapit has 3 G1 winners to Medaglia d’Oro’s 2.
You probably know that Medaglia d’Oro still hasn’t yet sired a stakes winning colt – all 10 of his SWs are fillies. Tapit does have colt SWs, but it’s an interesting fact that his best runners are fillies, too. What’s really amazing about both stallions is that all 5 of their combined G1 winners are fillies!
Medaglia d’Oro’s 2 G1 winners are:
Rachel Alexandra
Gabby’s Golden Gal
Tapit’s 3 G1 winners are:
Careless Jewel
Stardom Bound
Laragh
(click their names to view their pedigrees)
Another interesting tidbit: Tapit’s Stardom Bound, last season’s 2-year-old filly champion, was the filly everyone was talking about as a potential Derby horse earlier this year. Then Rachel Alexandra appeared on the scene and won the Preakness, and since then she’s defeated colts again and is now considered “one for the ages.” Now throw in Careless Jewel into the mix! How will she fare against Rachel Alexandra? She’s not exactly a one-hit wonder. Before the Alabama, she won the G2 Delaware Oaks, and she’s 4 for 5 lifetime!
Remember the two best fillies of 1980? Genuine Risk won the Kentucky Derby and was 2nd in the Preakness and Belmont, but Bold ‘n Determined, who’d won a boatload of races against fillies, including the Coaching Club American Oaks, defeated Genuine Risk in the G2 Maskette. Bold ‘n Determined actually won 16 of 20 starts, and some thought she was actually the better of the two.
The ongoing battle for supremacy this year between Medaglia d’Oro and Tapit may boil down into what happens between the battles of their fillies! Stardom Bound is reportedly making a comeback, too.
One thing is for certain: The freshman sire crop of 2008 is appears to be the best we’ve seen for some time. In addition to Medaglia d’Oro and Tapit, this group also includes Birdstone, Lion Heart, Speightstown, Candy Ride, plus a slew of others showing promise.
Footnote: In addition to Careless Jewel’s G1 victory on the East Coast Saturday, another 3yo filly, Internallyflawless (click here to view pedigree), won the G1 Del Mar Oaks impressively. This Giant’s Causeway filly could be a force in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf later this year. (BTW, both Careless Jewel and Internallyflawless have Werk Nick Ratings of A+++ *Triple Plus*!)
The second careless jewel link is wrong, and heads to stardom bound.
I was confused when you said A+++ and clicked the link to see C+.
What is the percentage next to the rating in the PDFs? Is that ROI?