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Pedigree fun facts: Medina Spirit
Feb 06, 2021 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com
When Medina Spirit dug in gamely to withstand all comers in the Jan. 30 Robert B. Lewis (G3), he was expressing tenacity reminiscent of grandsire Giant’s Causeway – and a more distant ancestor, Wild Again.
Yet Protonico sports fine bloodlines. Sire Giant’s Causeway earned the moniker of “Iron Horse” after battling to five straight Group 1 wins in the summer of 2000. One of the best ever trained by Irish maestro Aidan O’Brien, Giant’s Causeway was just outdueled by Hall of Famer Tiznow in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1).
From the Northern Dancer male line, Giant’s Causeway has imparted more stamina than typical for the branch established by his own sire, Storm Cat. Giant’s Causeway has yet to sire a U.S. classic winner, but sons have placed in all three jewels of the Triple Crown. Destin came closest in a 2016 Belmont S. (G1) heartbreaker, while Creative Cause was third in the 2012 Preakness (G1), and Mr. Big News filled that spot in last year’s Kentucky Derby (G1).
Medina Spirit’s dam, Mongolian Changa, is by Brilliant Speed, a stallion vaguely like Protonico in that he was a millionaire on the racetrack but not commercially appealing at stud. By Dynaformer – the sire of 2006 Kentucky Derby legend Barbaro – Brilliant Speed spent most of his career on the grass and placed third to St Nicholas Abbey in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1). Earlier in that sophomore season, Brilliant Speed dabbled on the Triple Crown trail, prevailing in the Blue Grass (G1) on Keeneland’s old Polytrack and taking third in the Belmont.
Further back in the female line comes a black-type motherlode. Medina Spirit’s fourth dam, the Forty Niner mare Scoop the Gold, produced multiple Grade 1-winning millionaire High Yield, hero of the 1999 Hopeful (G1) and the following year’s Blue Grass and Fountain of Youth (G1).
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