Cappucino Bay, Dam of Medaglia d'Oro, Dies at 30

Albert and Joyce Bell's Cappucino Bay died Jan. 25 at their farm in Montana. She was 30. 

A homebred for the Bells, the Washington-bred daughter of Bailjumper, out of the Silent Screen daughter Dubbed In, raced 24 times and won five of her starts, including her lone stakes win in the Mercer Girls Stakes at Longacres. Her other black-type performance was a third in the Vallejo Stakes at Golden Gate Fields. She retired at 5 with $164,433 in earnings.

Her biggest contribution to Thoroughbred racing came as a broodmare, more specifically from her fourth foal—a striking dark bay/brown son of El Prado bred by the Bells named Medaglia d'Oro . The colt was raced twice by the Bells before being acquired privately by Edmund Gann and put in the hands of trainer Bobby Frankel.

Medaglia d'Oro won or finished runner-up in 13 graded/group stakes. He scored three grade 1 victories—the Travers Stakes, Whitney Handicap, and the Donn Handicap—and was runner-up in the Emirates Airline Dubai World Cup (G1).

By far Cappucino Bay's most successful runner, Medaglia d'Oro was retired in 2004 with $5,754,720 in earnings. 

"Medaglia d'Oro and Cappucino Bay both have had a tremendous influence on the Thoroughbred world," Al Bell said. "Something very interesting about the whole situation is that Joyce and I have done a lot of racing, and Medaglia d'Oro was the first horse in 30 years we never gelded. If you stop and think (about) us making that decision, the impact that has had on Thoroughbred racing worldwide is unbelievable. We chose not to geld him because when we raced him, he was fast, he looked the part, and he never made a mistake here at the house or on the track."

Now standing at Darley near Lexington, Medaglia d'Oro has sired 120 (6%) black-type winners from 12 crops of racing age. In 2017, he was represented by seven grade 1 winners, including multiple champion Songbird—his leading runner to date by earnings with $4,692,000.

Cappucino Bay produced nine foals—seven raced, and five became winners. Her progeny earned total purses of $6,708,821. The mare delivered her last foal in 2010 for the Bells, a filly by Street Sense named Untold.

Besides Medaglia d'Oro, she is also the dam of multiple graded stakes winner Naples Bay (by Giant's Causeway) whom Edward Cox Jr. bought as a weanling for $350,000. The filly won the Noble Damsel Stakes (G3T) and the Marshua's River Stakes (G3T) and placed in three other stakes. M.V. Magnier bought Naples Bay as a broodmare prospect for $3.6 million at the 2014 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.

"There are times that we will see a catalog page at Keeneland and Joyce and I will have raised and raced every horse on the page," Bell said. "It's incredible. Today was a sad day for us. She had a good life. She had Cushing's disease, and we had the vet out about 10 days ago, but she had a heart murmur and her liver enzymes were up. 

"We have her dam, Dubbed In, buried at our place as well, and we have a nice gravesite picked out for her. We have a nice big stone that we're going to have with her dates of birth and death, and I'm going to have them engrave in the stone 'Forever in the Winner's Circle.'"