Irrespective of the quality of mares bred, there is plenty of evidence that a stallion's output diminishes with age. In fact, at least one scientific study has explained this phenomenon, showing that time passed and the volume of mares covered eventually become deleterious both to the integrity of the DNA passed on and to gene expression.
It seemed that time might have caught up with veteran stallion Medaglia d'Oro when his 16th crop, conceived when he was 17-years-old, became his first to fail to supply a single graded stakes winner.
The following year, however, that premise would be turned on its ear.
Medaglia d'Oro bounced back with a crop that yielded five graded stakes winners, including East Avenue, winner of the Breeders' Futurity (G1); Good Cheer, successful in the Kentucky Oaks (G1); and an even better filly in Nitrogen, Canadian champion 2-year-old filly in 2024, champion 3-year-old filly in the United States at 3, and a major contender for a second Eclipse Award in 2026 after winning three graded events, including the Ogden Phipps Stakes (G1).
Medaglia d'Oro has just one stakes winner from 84 foals in his 2023 crop, but that one is Tam Tam, who secured her second straight grade 1 success when capturing the Oct. 10 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes (G1T) at Keeneland.
Although she now ranks as one of the standouts of her division, Tam Tam didn't earn her maiden win until her fourth start, which—not coincidentally—was her first on the lawn. She followed with a victory in the Sanibel Island Stakes, then after a second in the Edgewood Stakes (G2T)—beaten just a head in a three-way photo—and a third in the Regret Stakes (G3T), presaged her weekend victory with scores in the Tepin Stakes, which she took by 5 3/4 lengths, and the Del Mar Oaks (G1T).
Tam Tam's dam Princess Julia is by another long-serving stallion in Distorted Humor, who was foaled six years prior to Medaglia d'Oro. Princess Julia failed to win in four starts, but did run second and third in Santa Anita Park maiden special weight events, beaten just three-quarters of a length on the first occasion. Tam Tam is Princess Julia's third winner from as many starters.
Folklore, the granddam of Tam Tam, was from the first crop of 2000 Horse of the Year Tiznow and was the chief architect of his victory in the 2005 leading freshman sire race. The champion 2-year-old filly of that year, Folklore finished first or second in all seven of her juvenile outings, winning the Adirondack Stakes (G2), Matron Stakes (G1), and Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1). She was injured and retired from racing after taking third in the Santa Ynez Stakes (G2) in her only outing at 3.
Folklore turned out to be a disappointing producer, at least in the short term. All of her 11 named foals reached the track, and seven won, but none so much as placed in a black-type event. However, she now appears as the granddam of two grade 1 winners as her Unbridled's Song daughter Rhodochrosite produced an outstanding runner in the Deep Impact horse Contrail, who was champion 2-year-old, champion 3-year-old, and champion older horse in Japan, where he captured the Triple Crown, and was also highweight in his age division on the World's Best Racehorse Rankings at both 2 and 3.
Folklore's is a half sister to the black-type winning and graded-placed A.P. Indy mare Divided Attention. She's also a half sister to the graded stakes-placed Delightful Quality, dam of a pair of stakes winners, most notably Essential Quality , who achieved the relatively rare feat of earning Eclipse Awards as champion 2-year-old male and champion 3-year-old male.
Folklore's dam is the unraced Storm Cat mare Contrive. Her dam Jeano was a prolific daughter of Fappiano who registered five stakes victories, including the Shirley Jones Handicap (G3) and Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes (G3), among her 10 wins. Rather like Folklore, Jeano initially proved somewhat disappointing as a broodmare—nine of her 14 foals started, and although seven won, the best of them was Prinz Oskar, third in a listed race in France—but made up for it through her daughters. In addition to Contrive, five more of her daughters appear in the female line of stakes winners and, overall, Jeano is the ancestress of 17 stakes winners, also including champion 2-year-old male Forte , grade 1 winner Come Dancing, and graded stakes winners Tizahit, Lord Alex, and Biddy Duke.
Jeano is out of Delaware Handicap (G1) scorer Basie, whose dam, Stolen Base, also appears as the third dam of dual classic winner and champion Smarty Jones. Stolen Base is from a branch of the La Troienne family, tracing to that famous mare through the well-known matrons Bases Full, Striking, and Baby League.
Tam Tam is one of 12 stakes winners, eight graded, from 80 starters by Medaglia d'Oro out of mares by Distorted Humor, notable among them being the great Hong Kong performer Golden Sixty and other grade 1 scorers Elate and New Money Honey. Distorted Humor did well when crossed over mares by Medaglia d'Oro's sire El Prado and, in general, the combination of Medaglia d'Oro's grandsire Sadler's Wells and Distorted Humor has been a positive one.
One doesn't have to dig far into their pedigrees to find the likely reason for that affinity: Sadler's Wells is by Northern Dancer out of a mare by Bold Reason, a son of Hail to Reason out of a mare by Djeddah; and Danzig's Beauty, the dam of Distorted Humor, is by a son of Northern Dancer out of a mare by Mr. Leader, a son of Hail to Reason out of a mare by Djeddah—making Sadler's Wells and Danzig's Beauty quite close relatives.
