By Bill Finley
It's not that Medallion Racing, a branch of Taylor Made, didn't get off to a good start. It was anything but. A racing partnership whose goal is to gets its partners to experience racing at the highest levels around the world, Taylor Made was delivering on that promise. Out of 250 plus starts, Medallion, at one point had raced five Grade I winners, won 28 graded stakes and had 72 top-three finishes in graded stakes.
But what it didn't have was a superstar, the type that could win multiple Grade I or Group I stakes. That all changed when Medallion purchased an interest in Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio) after she made her first start in a race at the Curragh in 2023.
Fast forward to 2024 and, despite an eighth-place showing in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile, she's won four Group I races. Her list of stakes victories includes two at the Royal Ascot meet, in the G1 Coronation S. and the G3 Albany S.
“It's been great to own her and Porta Fortuna is the culmination of everything we have worked for since we started Medallion seven years ago,” said Taylor Made President and CEO Mark Taylor. “She's the first horse we've had who has won multiple Grade I races and has gotten to the championship level. (Porta Fortuna was named the Cartier Champion 3-year-old Filly of 2024). There were some other horses that we almost pulled the trigger on and, for whatever reason, it was either the price or other concerns, became horses that we missed on. They went on to have these sensational performances. We missed on a few but not with Porta Fortuna. She was a walk-off home run.”
Trained by Donnacha O'Brien, Porta Fortuna is being given the winter off before she gears up for her 4-year-old campaign. The first major goal is a return to Royal Ascot. The rest of the season is up in the air, but Taylor said that a return trip to the Breeders' Cup is on his wish list and that there is a possibility she will have a prep in the U.S. before the Breeders' Cup.
“You get a horse like her and it's very easy to get ahead of yourself,” Taylor said. “These horses are not robots and they have to tell you what they want to do. It's really exciting for us because Donnacha is a massive talent and I think that with her being one of his first really big-time horses it is going to be something that is going to keep Porta in the conversation for decades to come. When Donnacha wins his 100th Group I race they'll be saying that one of his first very big horses was Porta Fortuna. We're leaving it in his hands and really don't have any concrete races picked out at this point.”
There are hundreds of racing partnership out there, but none quite like Medallion. Partners can buy into a horse for a one-time fee of $50,000. The goal is to find ready-made horses who are capable of winning group or graded stakes races immediately after being purchased by Medallion. When the syndicate buys the horse the goal is to have it running in a stakes race in five weeks or less from the time of the purchase.
“Any time you start a new venture in business or in life a lot of times you have a vision of how it will evolve, but many times it veers and turns into something different,” Taylor said. “We like to think that think Medallion racing has been one of those special ventures that when we sat down and scratched things out on a piece of paper this is exactly what we wanted to achieve. We want to create a racing partnership that ensures that people are going to get a taste of racing at the very highest level, and we're going to have it at an affordable price point where people can stick their toe in the water without coming off the high dive.
“It's really come to fruition. I give a lot of the credit to (Medallion Racing Manager) Phillip Shelton and to our partnerships brand coordinator Molly Hyer. Everybody on our team works together to create a real high level concierge type of service for our partners and we have been successful getting our partners to experience a really high level of racing at some of the best venues around the world.”
Taylor said they have never had a purchase who did not make it to the races for Medallion.
“Porta was one of the riskier buys because all she had ever done before was to break her maiden,” Taylor said. “Mark McStay brought her to us and was very high on her. Phillip Shelton actually had to talk me personally into it. I was worried that there was a lot of downside. They both loved the horse and thought she'd have massive upside if we get this thing right. I give the team credit because they got it right. That's how it kind of works. If you are an investor and we are building the team, building the stabile, most of these horses will be running in group or grades races within 30 days of us buying them. It's instant action. With yearling or two-year-old partnerships you buy in and then you have this long holding pattern while the horse develops. Those partnerships definitely have their place and you can catch lightning in a bottle, like they did with Flightline. But what we wanted to do is get people in and guarantee them they are going to get to a graded race and enjoy the experience. It's not like it's going to be 'I bought four yearlings and none of them can run.' You know you're going to get a taste of racing at the top level right away. Then you see if you like it and then you figure out if you want to take a deeper dive into the horse racing game in some other way.”
The Medallion stable is always developing. On average there are about 12 ½ horses in each new class. The mares are normally sold at the November sales and that money is then reinvested in new acquisitions.
A win by Porta Fortuna in the 2025 Breeders' Cup Mile would be the ultimate success story. But let her have another year where she wins three Group I races in Europe and no one will complain. She's only four and has raced just 12 times, winning six Group races. It's possible that she's just getting started.
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