Larry Best has shaken plenty of hands at Thoroughbred auctions after the hammer falls and sales tickets are signed, but there was something different about the exchange on Tuesday at the Fasig-Tipton July Yearling Sale.
After years at the top of the bloodstock market as a high-dollar buyer through his OXO Equine operation, Best shook the hand of winning bidder James Bernhard for the first time as the breeder and seller of a high-dollar sale horse.
“I just congratulated him,” Best said. “Everybody congratulates me when I buy a horse, and this is the first opportunity I've had to congratulate someone as the breeder, and now I know how it feels. We got a fair value for the horse, and you hope they do well.”
The breakthrough offering was Hip 111, a Candy Ride colt out of the Uncle Mo mare Beyond Grace who sold to Bernhard for $350,000.
Best made his intentions to build a top-level broodmare band known in 2019, when he spent $5 million on Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Blue Prize at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. However, the true foundation of the program was built with his first major purchases at auction.
Though he'd made a couple six-figure purchases during the previous season's yearling sales, Best introduced himself as a sticker-shock buyer at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, where he landed Beyond Grace for a sale-topping $1.5 million.
The filly went unplaced in three career starts for trainer Chad Brown, and she was sent to Candy Ride for the first time in 2018. Then, she went back to the well a year later to produce the horse that sold on Tuesday.
“I bred her to Candy Ride twice because of the quality of the first foal,” Best said. “This one has a big walk. About nine months from now, he's going to be right-sized, and should have some speed.
“Next year, I'll have probably 30 foals on the ground, and I can't keep all of them,” he continued. “A lot of people do the same thing, they tend to sell the colts and keep the fillies. In this case, I loved the horse but I have the full-brother (a still-to-be-named 2-year-old) already.”
Best keeps his roughly 35-head broodmare band at Taylor Made Farm in Nicholasville, Ky. The operation has further tied itself to the commercial future of OXO Equine as the consignor of his yearlings and the residence of his stallions, Instagrand and Instilled Regard.
Both Instagrand, a Grade 2-winning son of Into Mischief, and Instilled Regard, a Grade 1 winner by Arch, entered stud in 2021, and Best has committed his flashy mares to support them. In December, it was revealed that Blue Prize would be part of Instilled Regard's inaugural book at stud.
“We had a big year with Instagrand,” Best said. “He had 190 mares, so I'm excited about that. I got a little late start with Instilled Regard, but I love him. The pedigree is hard to compete with.”
The factory portion of the OXO Equine operation is approaching the point where it can start producing a full class of homebred racehorses and sale prospects every year, but Best said he still plans to continue being active as a buyer going forward.
Still, with one homebred sale under his belt, Best said he gets the appeal of being on the selling side of the transaction.
“It feels so good to actually breed a horse that someone values,” he said. “It feels right, so I'm going to balance my portfolio out, and it's part of my strategy.”
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