Medaglia d'Oro Filly Takes Stateside Bow, Gives Brown Saratoga Record

10th-SAR, $90,000, Alw (NW2$X)/Opt. Clm ($62,500), 9-4, 3yo/up, f/m, 1 1/16mT, 1:40.72, fm.
MEXICAN GOLD (f, 4, Medaglia d'Oro–Hachita, by Gone West) made a successful stateside debut and, in the process, gave Chad Brown a record-breaking 39th win at the Saratoga meet to break Todd Pletcher's previous mark. A Group 3 winner in her second lifetime outing last April at Longchamp, the Juddmonte homebred was a close third to the brilliant MG1SW Ervedya (Siyouni {Fr}) in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches before finishing fourth as the 1-10 favorite in the G2 Prix de Sandrigham at Chantilly. Fifth in the G3 Prix de Ris-Orangis against males in July, Mexican Gold closed her 3-year-old account with a neck second in the Prix de Saint-Cyr Oct. 16 at Maisons-Laffitte. Switched from the Andre Fabre barn after that, the bay was bet to 13-10 favoritism off the bench for this U.S. debut. Sitting fourth in the two path early on, about three lengths off moderate splits of :24.34 and :48.25, Mexican Gold was given her cue midway on the far turn and moved three wide in tandem with rail-running stablemate Off Limits (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}). Those two hooked up in the final sixteenth, with Mexican Gold gradually edging by for a half-length victory. The winner is a half to Announce (GB) (Selkirk), G1SW, $547,607. Stakes-winning second dam Choice Spirit (Danzig) is a half to MG1SW champion Zafonic (Gone West) and GSW and leading sire Zamindar (Gone West). Lifetime Record: GSW & G1SP-Fr, 7-3-1-1, $196,810. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
O/B-Juddmonte Farms Inc (KY); T-Chad C. Brown.