Darley has announced Medaglia d’Oro will begin shuttling to its Australian base this year.  

The sire of US Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra was purchased by Sheikh Mohammed last March and is currently covering his first book at Jonabell Farm for a US$100,000 fee.  He also covered 11 mares to southern hemisphere time at the Kentucky stud late last year.

“We are delighted Sheikh Mohammed has decided to bring Medaglia d’Oro to Australia,” Darley’s Australia’s managing director Henry Plumptre said on Saturday.  “Medaglia d’Oro is, quite simply, one of the best and most exciting stallions in the world.”

Medaglia d’Oro is a son of Champion Kentucky based sire El Prado (Sadler’s Wells) who died aged 20 at Adena Springs last year.  He was a G1 winner of the Travers Stakes, Whitney Handicap and Donn Handicap and helped propel El Prado to Champion US sire honours in 2002.

Medaglia D’Oro’s own stallion career has been just as successful with 14 black-type winners from his two crops to race.

Rachel Alexandra is scheduled to start her four year-old season in the New Orleans Ladies Stakes (1700m) at Fair Grounds next Saturday, March 13.  She won the G2 Fair Grounds Oaks on March 14 last year on her way to eventual Horse of the Year honours.  

The New Orleans Ladies Stakes will serve as the stepping-stone for her clash with Street Cry mare Zenyatta in the G1 Apple Blossom Invitational at Oaklawn Park on April 9.

The two champions will go head-to-head in a $5 million showdown that will capture world-wide attention.  The end result will be a win-win for Sheikh Mohammed because both mares are by Darley stallions.