They made them differently, back then: horses and horsemen alike.Jock Whitney was so interested by the favorite for the 1949 Spinaway Stakes that he watched her being saddled instead of his own filly, Sunday Evening. After all, Striking was equine royalty: by War Admiral out of La Troienne's daughter Baby League, therefore a full-sister to Busher.Baby League had been carrying Striking when Colonel Bradley died in 1946, and Ogden Phipps was duly delighted when landing her in the distribution of Idle Hour breeding stock among a consortium additionally comprising Greentree Stud and King Ranch. All three programs would prosper from the transaction, but Whitney, of Greentree, was naturally curious to examine one that had got away–especially after Striking had beaten Sunday Evening in the Schuylerville Stakes.That had been just a week previously. Yep, made them differently then.Striking duly started 2-5 favorite, but this time could not stem the finish of Sunday Evening, who won by a length.A cutely named filly by Eight Thirty out of the 1937 Ashland Stakes winner Drowsy–but her owner's original instinct would ultimately be proved correct: Striking would prove the greater influence, a vital conduit of La Troienne's dynasty. Nonetheless Sunday Evening eventually built a considerable legacy of her own, via three daughters that never made the track themselves. One became dam of Silent Screen, champion juvenile colt of 1969; another produced Dark Mirage, champion sophomore filly the previous year, as well as the granddams of Java Gold and Indian Skimmer; while a third, Royal Society (Royal Charger {GB}), would only be dusted off much later on.For both a daughter and granddaughter had similarly been unraced when the latter was mated with Silent Screen in 1972. The resulting filly, Dubbed In, was duly inbred 3×4 to Sunday Evening. That strategy at least produced some overdue soundness–she made 42 starts–albeit her half-dozen wins came in claiming company. But in 1980, her full-sister produced a Grade I winner (Travelling Music in the Sapling Stakes), prompting Albert and Joyce Bell to purchase Dubbed In for $65,000 for a nascent breeding program in Washington.They would have cause to be grateful that Dubbed In's fourth foal, a Bailjumper filly, fell short of her reserve as a yearling (at $3,200) when she proceeded to break her maiden in black-type company at the old Longacres racetrack. Happily nobody took her off their hands, either, when three of four subsequent scores came under a tag. And then, when the Bells bred their daughter of Bailjumper to El Prado (Ire) in 1998, they matched that good fortune with good judgement. Bringing the resulting foal home to Great Falls, Montana, they made an inspired decision. He was the first colt in three decades they elected not to castrate.Eligibility for stud, then, could be factored into the price when he broke his maiden so impressively that one of Bobby Frankel's owners bought him for $500,000. The horse would repay that investment 10-fold in racetrack earnings; and, after a nomadic start to his second career, eventually elevate his fee to $250,000.Only one Bailjumper mare has ever produced anything of that kind of account: Cappucino Bay. For we are, of course, talking about Medaglia d'Oro.Medaglia d'Oro | Sarah AndrewThough it was year ago this week that Darley pensioned the venerable stallion, his legacy continues to grow. He loomed behind both graded stakes winners last Saturday: one daughter, Tam Tam, won the GI Queen Elizabeth II Cup; while another is dam of GIII Hill Prince Stakes winner Third Coast (Uncle Mo).Both duly consolidated Medaglia d'Oro's reputation as a sire of females. Nitrogen and Good Cheer are the latest to extend a litany begun by Rachel Alexandra herself, while Prince of Monaco, National Treasure, Olympiad and First Mission are now disseminating his influence as a broodmare sire. Of course, Medaglia d'Oro also has sons of his own already thriving at stud, notably Bolt d'Oro and Violence.To one who routinely counsels against the self-fulfilling prejudice against ageing stallions, it's gratifying to note that Medaglia d'Oro conceived Tam Tam at 24, immediately after producing a GI Kentucky Oaks winner and also an Eclipse champion from his preceding crop. But then he didn't even reach his peak fee until he was 19, despite siring a Horse of the Year in his debut crop.He was certainly sent a pretty regal mare in 2022 by Stonestreet, who fortunately retained the pregnant Princess Julia (Distorted Humor) at Keeneland that November. (Good call, at $235,000 for the package. Tam Tam alone brought $975,000 as a Saratoga yearling!) Princess Julia had shown fair speed in a light career, placed twice, but her family had really taken off since she entered the program as a yearling in 2015. Her dam, champion juvenile filly Folklore (Tiznow), proved a modest producer of actual runners. But another of Folklore's daughters, meanwhile, produced Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail (Jpn); while one of her half-sisters had come up with no less a horse than Essential Quality.Remarkably, moreover, this family produced a second champion juvenile in three years when Forte emulated Essential Quality in 2022. That was because Jeano (Fappiano), third dam of Princess Julia and Essential Quality, is also the fourth dam of Forte–himself, remember, by Medaglia d'Oro's son Violence. Jeano, a dual graded stakes winner, was out of GI Delaware Handicap winner Basie (In Reality), whose dam was a granddaughter of none other than Striking.Tam Tam duly becomes the latest of several descendants to have this year marked the centenary of La Troienne's birth. But it's fun that such a long, congested highway should, in 1949, have briefly run alongside the back road that created the top half of her pedigree.Instant Dividends Take TimeThird Coast is a good example of what I'm always saying about backing sires on the bubble. In fact, he represents some pretty smart work all round.First of all, by Jim Fitzgerald who exported a Juddmonte filly named Instant Thought (Kris S) for just 20,000gns from the Tattersalls December Sale of 2003. She had managed a single start, albeit a promising one, and packed the kind of genes that have since made the Juddmonte draft the most coveted at that auction. Her dam Nimble Mind (Lyphard), useful herself, was sister to five-time graded stakes winner Skimble, whose first foal Skimming (Nureyev) won the GI Pacific Classic twice. One of their half-sisters, Contredance (Danzig), had moreover won a Grade I at two; and another had produced the English Classic winner Wince (GB) (Selkirk).Instant Thought still offered value, then, when moved on for $110,000 at the 2007 Keeneland January Sale. And purchaser Sean Fitzhenry promptly sent her to Medaglia d'Oro–then standing his third season, at $40,000.As I always say, if you truly believe in a stallion, that's when you use him. Sure enough, by the time the resulting filly surfaced at the 2009 Keeneland September Sale, Rachel Alexandra had exploded out of their sire's first crop and Glen Hill Farm were happy to give $150,000 for the yearling.Third Coast | CoglianeseThey, too, got a bargain. As Marketing Mix, she banked $2 million (including GI Gamely/GI Rodeo Drive). Even better, Glen Hill had doubled down when Marketing Mix began some steep improvement in the fall of her sophomore campaign. Seeing that the dam was being cashed out at the Keeneland November Sale, they recruited her for $225,000.That enterprise was not rewarded as it might have been, as the filly she was carrying would prove to be Instant Thought's last. But that foal did her bit for the page, placing in a graded stakes; while Marketing Mix herself made a flying start to her second career when her first foal, a Tapit filly, brought $1.1 million as a weanling.Things have not always worked out quite so well: the odd missed year, and not just fillies retained. But two of the latter have black type; while her castrated son by Uncle Mo has now done a major service to the page, as Third Coast.Out with the OldIt would be unfair to name names, so many people having done this kind of thing for so long. But I was still shocked, researching a bloodline featured in a recent column, to find that a mare who had meanwhile tied together the pedigrees of more than one champion had been sold (within the last 20 years) by a respected farm, for $5,000, when approaching her 22nd birthday.Of course, she was owed better regardless of her quality. Hats off to Keeneland, then, prohibiting the sale of mares over 18, from January onwards, except in complete dispersals. We shouldn't need telling, naturally. But having begun with one of my customary laments about the good old days, when people proved the kind of soundness that merited replication, I should at least acknowledge how we have collectively started to embrace at least one responsibility overlooked by our predecessors.The post Breeding Digest: Striking Gold in Parallel Seams appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.