The Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. June 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale gave us the final event of the season featuring multiple days of selling. A catalog that big helped us further flesh out the list with plenty of new stallions, and it got us one major step closer to the dust settling on these rankings.
It's been fascinating to watch the fluctuation of the rankings – or lack thereof – as we've progressed deeper into the juvenile auction calendar.
Though the season is not as front-loaded with select-type horses as it used to be, it's still a general rule of thumb that the sales offer more perceived rank-and-file horses in the later months. I expected average breeze times to rise across the board once those middle-market horses hit the track en masse, but the sires that have regularly occupied the top five have not been drastically affected.
Some of this has to do with high-level sires having fewer middle-market offerings, but for many of them, even the middle-market horses are breezing quickly enough to hold their own in that column. For the proven sires in the top five, it's business as usual. For the younger sires occupying the top two spots, it's a promising sign of things to come.
As a reminder, here are the requirements to qualify for the Power Rankings. If you notice a sire is missing from the list, it's almost certainly because they didn't hit one of these marks:
1) At least five horses sold during a major 2023 juvenile sale, regardless of distance breezed.
2) At least five horses that breezed an eighth of a mile, whether they sold or not (as much as I love a good quarter-mile breeze, there just aren't enough horses doing them to make a fair average).
Also important to note: For the sake of calculating averages, I stretched out each breeze time from fifths to tenths. If you see a :9.8 time somewhere, do not adjust your stopwatches.
Let's get a look at those rankings…
#1 – Justify, Ashford Stud
After finishing first in last year's Power Rankings, Justify continues to make himself comfortable at the top of the list in 2023, where he has resided since qualifying for the first time in April.
The Justifys have blazed over the track during this season's breeze shows, averaging a best-in-class eighth-mile time of :10.067 seconds through the OBS June sale. His lone offering of the June sale breezed two furlongs, leaving his average for an eighth untouched since our last check-in following the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.
Justify's quartet of workers to go in :9.8 seconds over the season thus far is tied for the third-most among eligible sires behind Omaha Beach (seven) and Twirling Candy (six), and none of his juveniles to go under the stopwatch have gone slower than :10.4 seconds.
This continues a trend Justify established last year with his debut crop, which also finished atop the rankings by average breeze time, at 10.120 seconds.
Justify sits in fifth by median sale price, at $270,000, led by Tennessee, a colt who hammered to Maverick Racing and Siena Farms for $1.2 million at the OBS March sale; the auction's second-highest price.
The dark bay or brown colt, offered as Hip 215, is out of the Grade 3-placed Smart Strike mare Zinzay, whose foals of note includes Grade 1-placed stakes winner Moon Over Miami. He breezed an eighth in :10-flat during the under-tack show for consignor Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds.
#2 – Maclean's Music, Hill 'n' Dale Farms
No change in the top two since Maclean's Music debuted on the list following the Timonium sale.
Maclean's Music has the fourth-highest average breeze time, in :10.2 seconds (or :10 1/5 seconds if you want to keep it traditional). That time was propelled by a pair of juveniles who breezed an eighth in :10 flat during the OBS March Sale, and another who achieved the same time a month later at the OBS Spring Sale. Five of his seven horses to breeze have gone in :10.2 seconds or faster, which can do wonders for an average.
He finished seventh by median sale price $240,000.
The clubhouse leader among that group hit their high mark at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May Sale, when Legion Bloodstock, agent, went to $450,000 for Hip 284, a colt out of the winning Yes It's True mare Martini. The Maryland-bred full-brother t0 stakes winner Dirty breezed an eighth in :10.2 seconds, and he was consigned by Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds, agent.
If you're sitting on a Maclean's Music for the upcoming yearling sales, this should all come as wonderful news.
The juveniles of 2023 were conceived at a lull in Maclean's Music's stud book in 2020, when he covered 57 mares. In 2021, he entered the breeding season off big campaigns by his sons Jackie's Warrior and Drain the Clock, and that increase in demand led to North America's biggest year-to-year increase in mares bred, with 221. Though he got a classic winner from his first crop in 2017 (Cloud Computing in the Preakness), it felt like Maclean's Music fully earned the public's trust in the early 2020s, and on top of the bulk numbers, breeders felt comfortable sending the best mares they had to him.
Something is clearly working for Maclean's Music in the 2-year-old market, and next year, he'll see a boost in both quality and quantity. Seeing how hard the pinhook buyers dig in for them when they're restocking this fall should be fun (and profitable) to watch.
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If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.#3 – Into Mischief, Spendthrift Farm
The commercial paramount of today's Thoroughbred marketplace gains two spots after the OBS June sale, jumping from fifth to third.
Into Mischief sits in second by median sale price, at $310,000 (the late Arrogate tops all sires with a median of $342,500, and he ranks 17th overall), led by a $1.3-million dollar colt who sold to More Play at the OBS Spring Sale.
Offered as Hip 967, the colt is out of the Grade 3-placed stakes-winning Ministers Wild Cat mare Singing Kitty. He's one of seven horses tied for the fastest time for an eighth this season, stopping the clock in :9.6 seconds. Wavertree Stables consigned the colt, as agent.
Into Mischief's average breeze time of :10.240 seconds ranked him 11th in that category. His seven-figure colt spearheaded a trio of sub-:10 workers, joined by eight more that breezed in :10-flat.
This crop of 2-year-olds was conceived in 2020, after Into Mischief's first of what's become four straight years as leading general sire by earnings. He was getting top-shelf books of mares before this crop, but this was his first formal season of breeding the best to the best, in terms of sire list rankings. For as meteoric as Into Mischief's rise has been, it might be ready to enter warp-speed now that we're seeing the foals conceived at the top of the mountain.
#4 – Speightstown, WinStar Farm
A top-10 sire in last year's Power Rankings, Speightstown remains hot in 2023.
Speightstown's under-tack horses carried the most weight to this position, with his average of :10.217 seconds ranking him sixth. Among them was a filly who went an eighth in :9.6 seconds at the OBS Spring sale to tie for the fastest time at the distance.
That filly, offered as Hip 1012 from the consignment of Scanlon Training and Sales, agent for Excel Bloodstock, is out of the Grade 3-placed Ghostzapper mare Spooky Woods, and she hails from the family of Arabian Knight. She sold to Bradley Thoroughbreds, agent, for $485,000.
She is also Speightstown's most expensive offering of the season so far, helping propel his median sale price to $215,000; ninth-best of the class so far.
#5 (tie) – Malibu Moon, Spendthrift Farm (Deceased)
The late Spendthrift Farm pillar makes a return to the top five after spending some time just shy of the pantheon.
Representing his second-to-last crop, Malibu Moon's 18 horses to go under the clock at an eighth of a mile this season have averaged a time of :10.117 seconds, trailing only leader Justify in that category. Three of those offerings went in :9.8 seconds – one each in both OBS March, April, and June – while six more stopped the clock in :10-flat.
This year's breeze show performers have led a dramatic shift from the Malibu Moon juveniles of 2022, which averaged a furlong in :10.387 seconds, ranking the sire 42nd in that category.
Malibu Moon's median sale price of $132,500 ranked him 16th on that measurable, led by a colt that sold for $375,000 at the OBS March Sale. Purchased by Three Amigos and offered as Hip 648, the colt is out of the Grade 3-winning Machiavellian mare Marietta.
That colt breezed an eighth in :10-flat for consignor James Layden, agent.
#5 (tie) – Medaglia d'Oro, Darley
One of four sires to rank in the top 10 by both average breeze time (eighth) and median sale price (tenth) at this point of the season, Medaglia d'Oro remains a fine example of high-level consistency.
His breeze show performers have been reliable on the stopwatch, with five of his nine to clock one furlong doing so in :10.2 seconds. Two more went in :10-flat.
As one of the breed's commercial stalwarts, a high median sale price is practically expected at this point, and he lived up to the billing at $197,500.
The star of that group came during the OBS Spring Sale, when MKW Racing and Breeding landed Hip 1170, a filly out of the Grade 2-placed Distorted Humor mare Virginia Key, for $325,000. Consigned by Wavertree Stables, the filly was one of Medaglia d'Oro's two juveniles to clock an eighth in :10-flat.
We'll be back one more time after the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic June 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale for the final installment of the 2023 Power Rankings.
The post The 2023 2-Year-Old Sale Sire Power Rankings: Who Landed Where After The OBS June Sale? appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
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