A Mitole colt and a The Factor filly shared top billing during the select session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's October Yearling Sale, with both fetching $210,000 from the Green family's D. J. Stable.
In total, 123 head changed hands for gross receipts of $6,018,000. The average was $48,927 (up 12.1% from $43,644 for the corresponding session in 2021) and median was $40,000 (up 25% from $32,000 last year). The RNA rate was 34.2% as of this writing, but that figure does not include post-sale transactions.
D. J. Stable led all buyers, while Kaizen Sales was the leading consignor with 18 head sold for $799,000.
The auction concludes Wednesday with an open session beginning at 10:00 a.m. Visit www.obssales.com for more information.
GREEN TEAM ACTIVE IN OCALA
Len and Lois Green's D. J. Stable celebrated a big win this past Friday when their Mark Casse trainee Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief) solidified herself as one of the favorites for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies with a gutsy score in Keeneland's GI Darley Alcibiades, and the team was back at it on Tuesday adding to their roster of 2-year-olds for next year. In total, D. J. purchased five head for a combined $590,000, including both of the $210,000 toppers.
“Our expectations are always to try and find value,” said D. J. general manger Jon Green when asked if last week's win had anything to do with Tuesday's activity. “We have people looking at every sale for us with the idea that if horses fall within the price ranges that we anticipate that we'll go ahead and strike. It's really a matter of value, and we felt like the horses we picked up at this sale, although they weren't inexpensive by any stretch, they represented value for the athleticism and the pedigrees they possessed.”
The Greens also purchased the $600,000 Curlin colt topper earlier this yearling season at Fasig-Tipton July.
The first of their high-priced buys Tuesday was a Mitole colt consigned by Bobby Jones Equine LLC, Agent II as hip 122. The Florida-bred is the first foal out of an unraced Uncle Mo half-sister to grade/group winners Giant Gizmo (Giant's Causeway), Eons (Giant's Causeway) and Tableaux (Giant's Causeway) and to the dam of MGSW Cheermeister (Bodemeister).
“The reason why we went as high as we did on the Mitole colt is that he doesn't look like a typical sprinter that you would expect from a champion sprinter like Mitole,” said Green. “He's bred 3×3 to Indian Charlie and he looks like he's going to be a big 16.3 kind of colt once he's all done growing. So, for us, it was the appeal of getting a horse who could potentially have the turn of foot and speed that Mitole had during his career, but still have the scope to go two turns like this colt should be able to do and like his female family suggests he should.”
Green also noted that D. J. had bought another Mitole colt at Keeneland September after he RNA'd for $190,000, “but we probably got outbid on four or five others.”
Also among D. J.'s acquisitions was a filly by The Factor (hip 150) who received a well-timed pedigree update when her 2-year-old half-sister Delight (Mendelssohn) romped in the GII Jessamine S. one race before the Alcibiades. Delight sold for $90,000 at this auction 12 months ago and then for $400,000 at OBS March off a sparkling breeze (10.1) and gallop out. Like Delight last term, hip 150 was consigned by Stuart Morris.
“It was a combination of things,” Green said when asked how much of the filly's $210,000 price tag was the pedigree and how much was the physical. “Mark Casse, who will train her, had her down in his opinion as the top filly in the sale. We were actually present when Delight won the Jessamine at Keeneland and I was just very impressed with her in the paddock–with her demeanor–and we were one of the many underbidders on her at OBS March. [Trainer] Jonathan Thomas has done a great job campaigning her and I fully anticipate that Delight is going to hit the board in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, and if that's the case it'll be a tremendous update for this filly as well.”
The D. J. team has a connection to a third Breeders' Cup-bound juvenile filly in GI TVG Del Mar Debutante S. and GII Chandelier S. heroine And Tell Me Nolies (Arrogate), who they bought for $70,000 as a KEEJAN short yearling upon the recommendation of bloodstock agent Kim Valerio and then sold for $230,000 at OBS April.
“The team starts with Kim Valerio,” Green said. “She's been outstanding as far as finding athletes for us. Kim has so many years of experience in the industry across the board in various aspects, and she's used to working with end users like us and knows what things we can live with vs. pinhookers for example. Kim does an outstanding job of finding these athletes and giving us a short list, and then it's up to our trainers to take the short list and narrow it down even more, but I would have to say for the majority of the horses on Kim's short list, our trainers concur and feel confident in vetting and subsequently bidding on and buying.”
D. J. will be seeking a second Breeders' Cup Juvenile fillies title (Jaywalk, 2018) next month, and Green said all systems are go: “Wonder Wheel, knock on wood, came out of the race outstanding. We fully anticipate for her to compete and run a good race in the Breeders' Cup. I've said previously in other interviews, and as silly as it sounds, the Spinaway (in which Wonder Wheel was second as the favorite Sept. 4) is a Grade I at Saratoga, so you'd think that would be very high up on everyone's list for trying to win it. But our goal was to set her up for the Alcibiades and then the Breeders' Cup, so on the one hand we were a little disappointed we ran second, but we weren't squeezing the lemon for that race. We were really trying to make sure she had two more big races in her arsenal and I think she's setting up to run a great race.”
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