Lukas Lands $1.35M Medaglia d'Oro Colt at Fasig-Tipton

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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
D. Wayne Lukas at The Saratoga Sale

D. Wayne Lukas knows what he likes.

The Hall of Fame conditioner wasted no time getting in on the action Aug. 9 on Day Two of The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's select yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and stuck to his guns to take home a Medaglia d'Oro   colt (Hip 114) out of grade 3 stakes winner Walk Close  for $1.35 million.


Signing the ticket on behalf of John Bellinger of BC Stables, Lukas landed the fifth seven-figure yearling of the sale. The colt consigned by Four Star Sales as agent was bred in Kentucky by Lochlow Farm and Godolphin. Medaglia d'Oro stands at Darley Stallions near Lexington, where his 2022 fee was advertised at $100,000.

"He has a really good physical," Lukas remarked. "Obviously we weren't the only people who liked him. I thought he had a tremendous walk and a tremendous disposition. I watched him come out and back two or three times and he looked like he has a good head on his shoulders. I got a hunch that the horse will get over the ground pretty good. I have a theory on angles and skeletons, the way they're put together and he had all of that...

"Nobody in the building knows if he's a bargain or not. We'll find out. You think you know and we all think we're smart about it. But people have opinions, and horses have the facts. That's the way that works."

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Lukas said exact ownership on the colt would be sorted out down the road. 

"I think we'll do something creative with him," he said. "We didn't have a lot of time to put anything together; we talked about it briefly. We'll sleep on it and then we'll get together and all of us maybe take a little piece. It could be (BC Stables) by themselves... We'll just have to work through it."

Hip 114, a yearling colt by Medaglia D’Oro out of Walk Close, was consigned at The Saratoga Sale
Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Hip 114, a yearling colt by Medaglia D’Oro out of Walk Close, was consigned at The Saratoga Sale

While Hip 114 was the star of the show, Lukas landed an additional quartet for his clients over a two-day span. Sneaking beneath the top of the market, he took home two additional horses for BC Stables—Hip 60, a $425,000 Munnings   filly bred by Hunter Valley out of the winning stakes-placed Quality Road   mare Roaming consigned by Four Star Sales; and Hip 65, a $425,000 Into Mischief   colt bred by William B. VanMeter out of the unraced Unbridled's Song mare Samantha Dillon, from the family of grade 1-placed Silver Swallow, consigned by St George Sales. He also landed a pair for John Napoli from Mulholland Springs' consignment: a $325,000 American Pharoah   colt out of the winning stakes-placed Blame   mare Blame It On Alphie, consigned as Hip 141 and bred by Mulholland Springs, Jay and Beth Young, and Tom Grether Farms; and a $200,000 Arrogate  filly (Hip 76) bred by Mulholland Springs and Roger and Mary A. Pardieck out of the Fort Larned   mare Sister. Also in the family is grade 3-placed stakes winner Langara Lass, the dam of graded stakes winner Blended Citizen, 2017 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) runner-up Lookin At Lee, and grade 1-placed stakes winner Battlefield Angel.    

Lukas plans to be active at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale as he lines up what he hopes will become his next generation of stars.

"It is fun to be back here and be (active buying) in this arena," he said. "We'll try to keep things going in the fall at Keeneland. As long as we can buy a few yearlings like this we'll have a nice race stable. I don't want a lot, I don't want to train like I used to."

For Kerry Cauthen of Four Star Sales, Tuesday's seven-figure sale was a moment not to be taken for granted.

"I've sold two seven-figure horses here, that being the second," he said. "It's pretty special. We sold a Tapit here a number of years ago... It would be an understatement to say that it's great. But it has been great in the sense of, all these horses are bringing what I would say are very good values, based on what you would say is a pre-sale expectation. The vibe here has been really special. It's continued to have the post-pandemic glow where everybody wants to do something. They realize that holding money in the bank doesn't give them a whole lot of joy, but this seems to be a sport that they're gravitating towards. Obviously, since I've been in it my whole life, I like to see that."