OBS Spring Sale

By Christie DeBernardis & Jessica Martini The four-day Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale got off to a strong start Tuesday. A colt from the first crop of Horse of the Year Gun Runner (Hip 118) was the day's hottest commodity, bringing $850,000 from Donato Lanni, acting on behalf of Michael Lund Petersen. Hip 118 was one of 181 juveniles to sell for a gross of $17,829,500. The average was $98,506 and the median was $50,000. Of the 304 catalogued, 225 were offered with 44 horses leaving the ring unsold...

A Liam's Map filly (Hip 1188) from the Flying Fish consignment looks to become the next star to come out of Art Fisher's training center after being one of eight juveniles to work a bullet in :9 4/5 during the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale under-tack show Saturday. The start of the sixth and final session was delayed until 9:30 a.m. due to storms in the forecast. "The third time I breezed her, I called the guy who owns her and said, 'This filly is diseased with speed.' So,...

The team at Three Chimneys could hardly have asked for a better start at stud for champion Gun Runner. The most expensive horse to retire to stud for the 2018 season, he filled a 171-mare book his first year, was the leading first-crop weanling sire the following year with an average exceeding $275,000, and again topped his class with his yearlings in 2020. By most accounts, the son of Candy Ride (Arg) has not done a thing wrong in his early stud career and yet, as his first crop was...

The catalog for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's 2021 Spring Sale of Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training is now available via the OBS website at www.obssales.com. A total of 1,214 juveniles have been cataloged for the four-day sale, set for Tuesday through Friday, Apr. 20 - Apr. 23. All sessions will begin at 10:30 a.m. The online catalog's main page allows access to a sortable master index providing searchable pedigree, consignor information and updated pedigrees. Advanced search and filter capability has been added to allow shortlist creation. A link to...

3rd-Del Mar, $55,000, Msw, 8-30, 2yo, f, 6f, 1:11.67, ft. VARDA (f, 2, Distorted Humor--She'll Be Right, by Sky Mesa), sent off at 5-1 in this debut, battled with I'm the Boss of Me (Midshipman) just in front to her inside for the first quarter mile and soon led by a half-length. After a half in :46.36, she jetted away from her foes to win going away by 3 1/4 lengths. Heels Up (Twirling Candy) ran second, 7 1/2 lengths in front of I'm the Boss of Me. The $700,000...

In this continuing series, TDN's Senior Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of promising maidens to keep on your radar. Vittorio (c, 2, Ghostzapper-Roberta Turner, by Smart Strike), a $750,000 OBS Spring purchase by Kaleem Shah, has every right to build off a better-than-it-looked debut fifth going five furlongs at Del Mar Aug. 1 (video). Off to a tardy beginning after breaking inward at the start, the 4-1 chance, equipped with blinkers, was slow into stride and trailed the field in ninth through an opening quarter in :23.28....

Sackatoga Stable's Tiz the Law (Constitution) was a Grade l winner at two, won the Grade l Florida Derby this year, and goes for the first Classic of the season as the favorite in the Gl Belmont S. on Saturday. His breeding rights have been tied up for months, and if he does nothing from here on in--highly unlikely as that is--he'll still have a place at stud at a prominent farm. Tiz the Law's racetrack future is bright. After the Belmont, he'll likely contest the Gl Travers at Saratoga...

These, as we all recognize, are unprecedented times. Only the foolhardy would forecast the duration, or future direction, of the tempest we suddenly find ourselves trying to navigate. Even so, one thing seems nearly guaranteed. There are people out there, whose most critical resources are not merely financial but sooner measured in intrepidity and acuity, who will turn out to have sown a great harvest during these times of famine. Because that's the other side of the same coin that made the current crisis as inevitable as it was impossible...

WinStar's Speightstown continues to prove himself as an accomplished sire of sires. Already, he's had four sons go on to produce Grade I winners and just in the last two years, he's seen eight additional sons, including GISW Force the Pass and the multiple graded stakes-winning Qurbaan, begin their stud careers. In 2017, WinStar welcomed their graded stakes-winning homebred Speightster into the same stud barn as his prodigious sire. With an initial stud fee set at $10,000, a price that has stayed in place since, Speightster has been supported with...

by Christie DeBernardis & Jessica Martini A filly by freshman sire Not This Time topped Wednesday's session of the Ocala Breeders Sales Company's Spring Sale at $1.35-million and the young Taylor Made stallion came out on top once again Thursday with one of his son's bringing the day's highest price of $700,000. Consigned by Randy Bradshaw, Hip 1283 was purchased by Donato Lanni on behalf of owner Michael Lund Petersen. Like the toppers from the first two days, Hip 1283 was originally slated for Fasig-Tipton's Gulfstream Sale. "[The market has]...

Action returned to the sales ring Tuesday for the first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and consignors and buyers tiptoed carefully through the first auction since the coronavirus pandemic halted the industry across the globe. At the conclusion of the session, numbers were down slightly from 2019 figures, but by and large participants seemed content simply to have made a new beginning. "Given everything that everyone has had to go through, I think it was a solid start," said OBS Director of...

A co-quickest (:9 4/5) colt by Ghostzapper provided an exclamation point at the end of the opening session of the OBS Spring Sale Tuesday when bringing a winning bid of $750,000 from Ben McElroy, agent for Arman Shah, son of prominent owner Kaleem Shah. Consigned by Becky Thomas's Sequel Bloodstock, Agent VII as hip 1250, he was originally entered in the cancelled Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale. A $250,000 KEESEP yearling purchase by Wyoming native and oil and gas industry executive Joey Platts, the Mar. 30 foal is out of a Smart...