OBS March

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL- For the third straight year, Saudi businessman Amr Zedan made the highest bid at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, going to an OBS record $3 million to acquire a colt by Gun Runner during a vibrant final session of the auction Thursday. The sale-topping colt brought the number of horses to sell for seven figures during the three-day auction to seven, up from four a year ago, and a record for the March sale. "I thought...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training produced an additional two seven-figure juveniles during its second session Wednesday, with a filly by Good Magic leading the way when selling for $1.1 million to Sean Flanagan. Through two of three sessions of the March sale, 269 horses have grossed $39,588,000 for an average of $147,167 and a median of $70,000. Those numbers are down slightly from the end-of-session figures from last year's March sale, which included a $1.5-million...

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...

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...

Having already saddled a pair of debut-winning 3-year-olds earlier on the program, Cherie DeVaux completed a hat-trick of victories when Lael Stables' Taking Candy came running in the final furlong to post his first stakes success in Saturday's GIII Fair Grounds Stakes in the Big Easy. Second behind 'TDN Rising Star' Carl Spackler (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) in the GIII Saranac Stakes at three in 2023 and runner-up in the 2024 Bernard Baruch Stakes, both at Saratoga, Taking Candy was lasst seen finishing a running-on third to What Say...

The catalogue for the OBS March sale has been released and is now available online. The three-day sale will run from Mar. 11 to Mar. 13 and each session will begin at 11:00 a.m. HIPS 1-272 will go through the ring Mar. 11, then 273-544 the day after, and lastly 545-814. The under-tack show will begin Mar. 5 and run through Mar. 8 starting at 8:00 a.m. each day. The show, and subsequent sale, will both be streamed live via the OBS website as well as the TDN. There will...

Inherently, horse racing is an exercise in faith, like when a horse is foaled or has the health and good fortune to make its first career start. Or, if it is one of the very fortunate few to make it into the starting gate on the first Saturday in May. However, Mark and Clint Cornett experienced another leap of faith stemming from the decision to return White Abarrio (Race Day), winner of the GI Whitney and GI Breeders' Cup Classic while under the care of Rick Dutrow Jr., to his...

With the scratch of her stablemate Brilliantly from the race, Maysam (Game Winner) carried the load for the Bob Baffert alone Friday and clearly needed no additional help, cruising to an open-lengths win to become the first 'TDN Rising Star' for her young sire. Bet down to 1-2 facing five rivals, the $500,000 OBS March grad was initially outrun from her rail draw but content to sit back behind the speedier Frog (Frosted) to her outside. Still a comfy second as the field swung into the far turn, Maysam was...

In this continuing series, Alan Carasso takes a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this Saturday running at Chukyo and Kyoto Racecourses: Saturday, December 7, 2024 5th-CKO, ¥13,720,000 ($91k), Newcomers, 2yo, 1400m RAINBOW LUCKY (JPN) (f, 2, Quality Road--Wholehearted, by Awesome Again) is the first foal from her stakes-winning dam and was acquired by Yushun Company in...

It takes a pretty serious animal to earn $2 million in any racing jurisdiction, let alone accomplishing that feat in a place like Hong Kong. The urban environment is not for every horse--to that end, the Hong Kong Jockey Club operates their state-of-the-art satellite facility in Conghua [shung-pha] on the Chinese mainland--and it takes a special horse to thrive there. Chancheng Glory (Mor Spirit) has done just that over the course of the last 18 months or so. Bred in Iowa by Allen Poindexter, the 4-year-old gelding has won seven...

Win Win Win (Hat Trick {Jpn}), the sire of sales-topping and graded-winning 'TDN Rising Star' Nooni, will stand the 2025 breeding season at a fee of $8,500 stands and nurses at Ocala Stud. The soon-to-be 9-year-old stallion has accounted for eight winners from his first crop to date, topped by the aforementioned Nooni, who fetched $1.8 million from Donato Lanni on behalf of Amr Zedan's Zedan Racing Stable at this year's OBS March Sale. Turned over to Hall of Famer Bob Baffert, the bay filly--bred by Ocala Stud--graduated by 9...

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Tokyo and Kyoto Racecourses: Saturday, November 16, 2024 11th-TOK, Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai S.-G2 ($461k), 2yo, 1800mT DEL AVAR (c, 2, Frankel {GB}--Amour Briller, by Smart Strike) was impressively off the mark at first asking going this distance at Fukushima...