Maxfield

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training opened Tuesday with a colt from the first crop of Grade I winner Maxfield (hip 119) leading the way when selling for $1 million to Japanese trainer Mitsu Nakauchida. The colt was consigned by Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables. At the end of the session, 117 juveniles had sold for $15,902,000 for an average of $135,915 and a median of $85,000. At the conclusion of last year's opening session, 152 head...

A colt from the first crop of Grade I winner Maxfield (hip 119) will be heading to Japan after selling for $1 million to the bid of trainer Mitsu Nakauchida during Tuesday's first session of the OBS March sale. The colt, who shared the :9 4/5 bullet during the first under-tack show last week, is out of multiple stakes winner and graded placed Eyeinthesky (Sky Mesa). He was consigned by Wavertree Stables and was purchased by a pinhooking partnership for $75,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

Saturday marked the final day of under-tack previews for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training and a colt by Gun Runner (hip 654) set the bar within the first six hips of the day with the sales co-fastest time, breezing an eighth in a swift :9 3/5. The grey or roan colt, consigned by Eddie Woods, agent, was a $200,000 Keeneland September grad for St. Clair Stables last year. He is the first foal out of Tynan, a winning daughter of Liam's Map who is...

The under-tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, delayed a day by weather and beset by a strong and persistent headwind when it opened Thursday, nonetheless got off to a fast start when the first horse on track, a colt by Charlatan (hip 176), worked a furlong in :9 4/5. Just a few minutes later, a son of another freshman sire, Maxfield (hip 119), equaled that time and the trio of bullet workers on the day was completed later in the first set...

3rd-TAM, $53K, Msw, 3yo, f, 7f, 1:50 p.m. ET. MEURSAULT (Tapit) is set for her first start under the care of trainer Chad Brown for Alpha Delta. A $700,000 Keeneland September buy, the filly is out of unraced Lasy W (War Front), who claims one other foal--a yearling filly by Quality Road. The first-time starter's second dam, GI Acorn Stakes heroine Zaftig (Gone West), is also responsible for MGSP Spinoff (Hard Spun). Joining Meursault at the barrier is homebred Smoothly (Nyquist). Godolphin also campaigned her dam Via Strata (Street Cry...

First let's salute two horses in this category just emerging from surely the most competitive freshman title race ever. The lead changed hands between both, as well as McKinzie (now $75,000), through the final hours of 2024, with VEKOMA ultimately seizing the crown--partly through belated processing of a son in Panama--by $22,939 from McKinzie, with TIZ THE LAW breathing down their necks $9,334 behind. In fact, his "extra" winner gave Vekoma a share of the North American record of 39 first-crop juvenile winners. Admittedly he was working from corresponding volume,...

6th-FG, 58K, Msw, 3yo/up, 6f, 4:15 p.m. The half-brother to MGISW Matareya (Pioneerof the Nile), DARROW (Uncle Mo) debuts at Fair Grounds Sunday as a Godolphin homebred for trainer Brad Cox. Out of GSW Innovative Idea who already has three winners from three runners, the colt goes back to third dam Caress who Godolphin picked up for $3.1m out of Keeneland November back in 2000. That Storm Cat mare produced GISW and sire Sky Mesa (Pulpit) as well as Velvety (Bernardini) who became the dam of MGISW and young stallion...

Keeneland has supplemented six horses--including MSW Kloepatra, who is carrying her first foal by Life Is Good--to the 2025 January Horses of All Ages Sale, the auction wing of the organization said in a Thursday press release. Now with an offering of 1,312, the sale will cover three sessions from Jan. 13-15. The catalogue includes broodmare prospects, yearlings, horses of racing age and stallions and stallion prospects. The two in-foal broodmares among the supplements are: Kloepatra, a dual stakes-winning daughter of Cairo Prince out of Kaiserin, by Tiznow, who will...

The lesser-fancied and less-heralded of an uncoupled Godolphin-owned entry in Thursday's GIII Falls City Stakes at Churchill Downs, the beautifully bred Loved (Medaglia d'Oro) went through her gears in the final three-sixteenths of a mile to cause a mild upset. 'TDN Rising Star' Tarifa (Bernardini), the 7-4 favorite exiting a tough victory in the GII Mother Goose Stakes Oct. 26, boxed on for an alibi-free second while no match for the winner. Having earned her first black-type success in the Mari Hulman George Memorial Handicap at Horseshoe Indianapolis this past...

Voila Magic, the 9-2 third choice in this inexperienced group, wanted the front but had to contend with Acknowledge (Authentic) early to his inside. The pair dueled past the half-mile pole in :46.03 and it was Voila Magic who went on with things, putting that rival away off the far turn and opening up on his wrong lead to cruise home ridden out 5 3/4 lengths in front of 2-1 favorite Ennis Town (Echo Town). Voila Magic is Volatile (by Violence)'s second 'TDN Rising Star', joining Saratoga maiden winner and...

As most of us can attest from painful experience, this business will always be an exception to the axiom that "a rising tide floats all boats." Even a record, boomtime sale like the one just completed at Keeneland will inevitably have left many a vessel beached or taking on water. As usual, the September Sale extended a wide spectrum even among the losers, never mind between losers and winners, from the single colt that changed hands for as little as $1,000, to the granddaughter of Take Charge Lady who fell...

To many, no doubt, her genetic contribution is by now too attenuated to merit attention. At the very least, however, it must be acknowledged an impressive coincidence that the winners of both the GIII Iroquois Stakes and GIII Pocahontas Stakes--whose shared value, as reconnaissance for the Classics over the same track next May, is recognized by allocation of the first starting points--should share as sixth dam the Darby Dan foundation mare Golden Trail. The Golden Trail dynasty entwines such productive lines as those branded by Memories of Silver, Sunshine Forever...