War Front Colt Tops OBS Thursday

[Wandering Eyes]

OCALA, Fl – The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s April Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds marched through its third of four sessions Thursday in Central Florida, with figures ahead of last year’s record-setting auction. Through three sessions, OBS has sold 533 horses for a total of $51,550,500. The cumulative average is $96,718–up 8.1% from the same point a year ago–and the median is up 22.2% to $55,000.

Thursday’s session, which saw 175 juveniles gross $16,047,500 for an average of $91,700 and a median of $55,000, was topped by a colt by War Front (hip 888) who sold for $725,000 to Emmanuel de Seroux’s Narvick International on behalf of Japanese owner Katsumi Yoshida. The colt was consigned by Niall Brennan, who continues to lead all consignors at the auction with 23 sold for a total of $5,187,000.

Last year’s sale produced three seven-figure transactions, including the $2.45-million topper, and while this year’s renewal has lacked that breakout horse, 19 juveniles have sold for $400,000 or over, up from 14 a year ago.

Bloodstock agent Mike Ryan, who purchased two of the top five lots Thursday, leads all buyers having purchased eight juveniles for $1,882,000.

“The market is selectively strong,” Ryan said Thursday. “If you see something you like, you are going to have go 35% higher to get it. If you think it is worth $300,000, you better prepare to pay $400,000. Everybody wants the same horse. People are very thorough in their preparation. They know what they want and they will pay you well for the good ones.”

Phoenix Thoroughbreds has purchased three horses so far at the four-day sale, including a $625,000 Giant’s Causeway colt (hip 726) from Off the Hook, LLC. The operation’s Tom Ludt agreed competition was stiff for the top offerings.

“For the good horses that stand out, you are butting heads with the same people,” Ludt said. “They are going for more than you want to pay for, but if you want a good horse, you have to stretch a little bit.”

Off the Hook’s Joe Appelbaum said activity has been building throughout the week in Ocala.

“After the first day, it has really picked up,” Appelbaum said. “Day two we saw the median up, which gave me hope. It’s been hard to sell middle-market horses, but there seems to be a bit of a market here for them.”

The OBS April sale concludes Friday with a session beginning at 10:30 a.m.

War Front Colt Heading to Japan

Emmanuel de Seroux of Narvick International made his second major purchase of the OBS April sale, going to $725,000 to secure a colt by War Front on behalf of Katsumi Yoshida during Thursday’s third session of the OBS April sale. De Seroux, who did his bidding out back alongside Japanese agent Riki Takahashi, purchased a colt by Speightstown for $700,000 during Wednesday’s session of the four-day auction.

“We have been trying for a while to get a good War Front colt and they are not so easy to get,” de Seroux said after signing the ticket on hip 888. “He is a very nice type, he breezed very well and he galloped out very well. And he has a turf pedigree which is a plus for Japan. He is everything we were looking for.”

The bay colt is out of multiple graded stakes winner River Belle (GB) (Lahib) and is a half to graded winner Strathnaver (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). Bred by Lofts Hall Stud, he RNA’d for $275,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale.

De Seroux said part of the attraction of Wednesday’s Speightstown colt (hip 403), a half-brother to juvenile champion Good Magic, was his potential as a stallion. The same logic applied to Thursday’s purchase.

“He looks like a stallion prospect, he’s a beautiful type,” de Seroux said. “He’s by War Front and from a great female line. So he has a stallion pedigree if he is any good.”

The colt’s $725,000 price, highest on the day and third highest of the sale so far, was no surprise to de Seroux.

“We thought a lot of people would be looking at him,” he said. “He was one of the top horses in the sale and he has one of the best pedigrees. So for a horse of that class, unfortunately you have to spend some money. We thought he was good value.”

The juvenile, who worked a quarter in :21 1/5, will head to Yoshida’s Northern Farm before being assigned a trainer.

Candy Ride Filly for Drown

Bloodstock agent Mike Ryan continued a busy few days of buying in Ocala, signing the ticket at $650,000 to acquire a filly by Candy Ride (Arg) on behalf of Minnesota owner Jeff Drown early in Thursday’s third session of the OBS April sale.

“He wants to increase the quality of his racing stable and his mares,” Ryan said of Drown, who is CEO of Lyon Contracting, Inc. “We knew we were going to have to stretch on her.”

Consigned by RiceHorse Stable, the chestnut filly (hip 669) is out of multiple stakes placed Minesave (Mineshaft), a daughter of graded stakes placed Jaramar Rain (Thunder Gulch) and a half-sister to multiple graded stakes placed Imperial Council (Empire Maker). She worked a quarter during last week’s under tack preview in :21 1/5.

“She was exceptional,” Ryan said of the filly. “I saw her the week before the breeze show here when I did some looking around the barns. She knocked me out then. I was hoping that she might breeze a little slow–no disrespect to the consignor or the owners–but I knew when she breezed as well as she did that this was going to be a battle. She is a filly that looks like she’ll run this summer in Saratoga. She is bred to get two turns and she is an exceptional filly. You don’t get many like this.”

The filly, who is expected to be trained by Chad Brown, was bred by WinStar Farm and was purchased by Rickey Kanter’s Stallionaire Enterprises for $270,000 at last year’s Keeneland September Yearling Sale.

“Obviously, she was an expensive as a yearling,” Ryan said. “Great credit to those people. They bought an outstanding filly and she showed it out here. There was a lot of action on her.”

Drown, who has a small broodmare band based in Kentucky, campaigns ‘TDN Rising Star’ Summer Revolution (Summer Bird).

“He has some quality mares and he loves the game, his family loves it, his parents love it,” Ryan said. “He wants to do it right. And he wants to be a presence in New York. He’s been in the game a while, but now he has ratcheted up what he wants to do. He said, ‘Find me something really good, something we think is New York stakes quality, a Saturday afternoon horse, hopefully.’ That Malibu Moon filly yesterday made $700,000 and I thought it was a flip of a coin which one you were going to go for because they were both exceptional fillies.”

Phoenix Strikes for Giant’s Causeway Colt

Phoenix Thoroughbreds made plenty of headlines at sales around the world last term, scooping up many high-priced horses of all ages, including last year’s OBS March topper. Amer Abdulaziz’s operation had been quiet through the first two sessions of the OBS April sale, but they made their presence know Thursday, going to $625,000 for a colt by the late Giant’s Causeway.

“He’s a Giant’s Causeway. He’s got all that Classic distance to him,” said Tom Ludt, who is Head of U.S. operations for Phoenix. “We think he is going to be a nice two-turn horse. We are looking for some good colts He may not be early, but he may be really good long and we thought he fit the profile.”

Ludt added, “He will stay in the States. We will decide in the next month who he will go to. We are spreading horses around a little bit. We haven’t made that decision yet.”

Ludt was seated alongside Abdulaziz and bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neill when he signed the ticket on Hip 726. O’Neill has picked out a plethora of talented runners over the years, including GI Kentucky Derby winners I’ll Have Another (Flower Alley) and Nyquist (Uncle Mo).

“Dennis has a good eye,” Ludt said. “He has done a good job for people and he is a friend of mine, so he has been offering advice to us.”

Phoenix Thoroughbreds bought two horses during Thursday’s session, a $290,000 Trappe Shot colt (Hip 529) and a $55,000 Cairo Prince colt (Hip 647).

“We’ve been bidding, but it’s been hard to buy,” Ludt said. “We’ve been butting heads with the same people and have been underbidders on some expensive ones.”

Bred by CESA Farm, Hip 726 is out of the Mineshaft mare My Special Secret, who is a half-sister to GSW Ask Me No Secrets (Seattle Slew). The bay breezed in :10 2/5 for Joe Appelbaum’s Off the Hook LLC.

“[The breeder] Haras Los Samanes is a longtime client and friend of ours,” Appelbaum said. “We sold the sister [Secret Quality (Elusive Quallity)] of this horse to West Point [for $155,000] a year ago. I see she is training for Christophe Clement right now, so hopefully she is ready to go soon. His pedigree and body type wouldn’t suggest that he would be a fast breeze horse, but as you can see, everyone respected what he did on the track. There is potential for him going two turns.”

The great Giant’s Causeway passed away Apr. 16 at age 21 after a brief illness.

“He has been an amazing sire for the last almost 20 years,” Appelbaum said. “There are not many left now. We have had some good ones and we have a good spot in our heart for Giant’s Causeway.”

Just nine hips later, Appelbaum’s operation had another good sale when a Take Charge Indy colt, purchased by G S Inversiomes Hipicas for just $17,000 at KEESEP, sold for $270,000 to bloodstock agent Liz Crow. Hip 735, who breezed in :10 flat, is out of GISW Nany’s Sweep (End Sweep), who also produced GSW She’s Indy Money (A.P. Indy).

“They bought the horse very properly,” Appelbaum said. “Take Charge Indy is really ramping up. That horse has come along too. We were thrilled with him on the farm. He put in a good breeze and he was really a physical character.”

Appelbaum continued, “For the last six to eight weeks, we’ve known he’s a good horse and expected him to do well.”

Overall through the first three sessions, Off the Hook LLC has sold a total of 21 horses for a gross of $3.045 million.

—@CDeBernardisTDN

Mateo Scores With Arch Colt

Lifelong horsewoman Elizabeth Mateo enjoyed one of her best pinhooking scores Thursday when an Arch colt she purchased for just $60,000 at Keeneland September sold for $410,000 to bloodstock agent Mike Ryan, who was acting on behalf of Marc Keller.

“I’ve always had a horses,” said Mateo. “I even had a horse with me in college. I can’t be keeping them all so I started pinhooking a few a year.”

As for what attracted her to Hip 651, the Alpharetta, Georgia, resident said, “This colt has a classic pedigree. He’s gorgeous and well put together.”

Mateo and Robert Meier, who signed the ticket at KEESEP on her behalf, were among the first to congratulate Ryan on his purchase, as was underbidder Rick Violette. Ryan indicated that the colt would go to New York and join the barn of Bobby Ribaudo.

“I’ve been a big fan of Arch for a long time,” Ryan said. “We were underbidders on [$1.05 million OBSMAR buy and GIII Lecomte S. winner] Instilled Regard (Arch) here last year. He was a special colt. A good horseman bought him in the beginning and bought him well and $60,000. He’s a special colt. He’s a very noble horse, very stoic, just a really good horse.”

Consigned by Tom McCrocklin, the :22 1/5 breezer is out of SW and GSP Mega Dream (Medaglia d’Oro) and hails from the family of champion grass horse Tight Spot. Hip 651 was bred by Nancy Polk’s Normandy Farm, which has also produced the likes of Grade I winner Daddy’s Lil Darling (Scat Daddy) and SW & GSP Sunny Skies (Animal Kingdom). —@CDeBernardisTDN

Spendthrift Shows Support for Young Stallion

Spendthrift Farm went to $650,000 at the end of Wednesday’s session to acquire a filly by their red hot stallion Into Mischief and B. Wayne Hughes’s operation engaged in another intense round of bidding late in Thursday’s session to support one of their newer stallions, going to $400,000 for a filly from the first crop of Shakin It Up (Midnight Lute). Hip 913 breezed in a bullet :20 3/5 for consignor Eddie Woods.

“That is pretty close to where we thought we would be [price wise],” Spendthrift General Manager Ned Toffey said after signing the ticket while seated alongside Hughes. “Our thought was just that we need to buy this filly. She was as nice as any horse I saw here, so we were thrilled to get her. She had a very good breeze and absolutely looks the part. It is hard to build one better than this.”

Catalyst Bloodstock, who bred the juvenile in partnership with Erin Knehr, bought Hip 913’s dam Rupert’s Promise (Capote) with the filly in utero fore $2,500 at the 2015 Keeneland November sale. Woods’s clients the Moss Group purchased the dark bay, who hails from the family of GISW sire Roman Ruler, for $120,000 at the Fasig-Tipton October sale.

“I thought she even had a chance to bring more,” Woods said. “People are respecting the stallion, but I think they are a little afraid because it is the first crop. That is still plenty of money to pay for a horse. Her physical and her work are fantastic. If she had been a Malibu Moon, she would have brought $700,000 or $800,000. She still sold very well and the owner of the stallion bought her.”

Shakin It Up, campaigned by breeder Mike Pegram in partnership with Dennis Cardoza, won the 2013 GI Malibu S. and a pair of Grade II events for Hall of Famer Bob Baffert. He retired to Spendthrift after finishing fourth in the 2014 GI Met Mile.

“We’ve been really impressed with how he’s stamping them,” Toffey said. “They’ve been really consistent, breezing well and showing tremendous ability.”

Woods added, “I only have two and we will be looking for more.” —@CDeBernardisTDN

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