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Big Buyer Best Starts New Chapter As A Commercial Seller At Fasig-Tipton July

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.”

The post Big Buyer Best Starts New Chapter As A Commercial Seller At Fasig-Tipton July appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Leading New Mexico Sire Attila’s Storm Dies At Age 19

Attila's Storm, a regular presence at the top of New Mexico's sire list, died on June 23 after suffering a heart attack following colic surgery at Franklin Veterinary Clinic in Ruidoso Downs, N.M., BloodHorse reports.

The 19-year-old son of Forest Wildcat last stood at Double LL Farms in Belen, N.M. after selling for $90,000 as part of the 2020 dispersal of owner R.D. Hubbard on ThoroughbredAuctions.com. He'd resided at different farms around the state since retiring to stud in 2008 as a candidate to breed both Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses.

Attila's Storm won five of 18 starts during his on-track career for earnings of $534,983. He raced primarily on the East Coast, highlighted by wins in the Grade 3 Toboggan Handicap and listed Fall Highweight Handicap. he also finished second in the Grade 1 Malibu Stakes.

The horse competed in two editions of the Breeders' Cup Sprint, finishing fourth at Belmont Park in 2005 and fifth in the 2006 running at Churchill Downs.

Runners by Attila's Storm have earned more than $14.3 million on the racetrack, led by five-time stakes winners Waltzing Attila and Stormin the Jewels, along with other multiple stakes winners Hush's Storm, Thermal, and Go for a Stroll.

Bred in Kentucky by Lajos Kengye, Attila's Storm is out of the Magesterial mare Sweet Symmetry.

Selling Around The Dispersal: Sellers Navigated Uncharted Waters In Fasig-Tipton July Breeding Stock Sale

Fasig-Tipton's auctions are well-known for their flexibility when it comes to adding late entries to an established sale, but Monday's inaugural July Breeding Stock Sale introduced an entirely new marketplace segment with the clock winding down.

The Breeding Stock Sale was introduced by Fasig-Tipton on June 15, less than a month before the auction was to take place on July 12. The initial announcement centered around the Far From Over/Fountain of Youth Dispersal, but it invited other sellers to enter the catalog with their mares and foals to take advantage of the tentpole liquidation.

Summer broodmare sales are uncommon on the U.S. landscape, save for an urgent dispersal here and there, meaning the July Breeding Stock Sale would be an untested marketplace in a business that clings harder to the sure things each passing year. Entering the sale would be a leap of faith, with the hopes that buyers would be there to catch the horses on the other side.

How successful that leap was depended on who one asked around the sales grounds on Monday afternoon, but the general ethos in the new offering didn't change from what one might see in any other sale.

“It seems like if you have something of quality, in foal to a quality horse, they're going to buy them, and I don't think it matters if it's now or November,” said Gainesway's Brian Graves.

Gainesway handled the breeding stock session's highest-priced offering, Jeweled Princess, a Cairo Prince mare who sold in foal to Horse of the Year Gun Runner to Stoneriggs Farm for $225,000.

Graves said the mare's owner contacted him about her potential chances in the new sale when it was announced, and they agreed she could do well in the venue, which was a common refrain among several consignors when it came to recruiting prospects for the auction, even on relatively short notice.

“When Fasig announced that they were going to have that dispersal, and they were opening up, the phone really started ringing for us,” said Mark Taylor of Taylor Made Sales Agency. “It wasn't a lot of arm-twisting, it was really more people calling and saying, 'I really hadn't thought about it, but I've got this mare I'd like to turn into some cash; I'm going into the yearling market, or whatever, and I just would rather get the money now, as opposed to pay bills and wait until November.'”

Consignors said the opportunity for mid-season liquidity on the open market was one of the sale's biggest selling points their clients discussed when considering a mare for the sale.

“Generally speaking, we did reach out, but didn't get a great reception,” said Derek MacKenzie of Vinery Sales. “Most of the ones we got, the people called us – partnership dispersal type stuff. Most people thought it was better to wait until fall.”

MacKenzie said the market showed up for his mare in foal to Omaha Beach, who is likely to be an early leader among commercial sires when his first foals hit the sales ring later this year. However, there was not as much depth as he'd hoped for horses below that level, and having a foal on the ground next to the mare was not necessarily the selling point one might assume it would be.

The buyer ranks made it clear that young mares were a priority on Monday. Of the six horses to sell for six-figure prices, only one had more than two foals on her produce record.

“I probably would have missed the market a little bit,” said Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning. “I was really surprised with how well some of the in-foal mares and broodmare prospects sold that weren't part of the dispersal. I was a little surprised that some of the mares with foals at their side didn't bring a little more money, but it's making a significant commitment to buy a mare that might have five or six foals on the ground. We've seen that be an area of weakness in the marketplace, whether it's in November, January, or February, and it's still there.”

However, that's not to say having a mare with a foal at her side made her an instant disqualifier in the July marketplace. Taylor said that the sale's placement on the calendar, before the foals are weaned from their mothers, has the potential to open up a more diverse group of buyers in time.

“We're pretty new into this, but I definitely thinks it was a plus,” he said. “It gets weanling pinhookers basically bidding on mares. Then, it gets mare buyers bidding also, so it just opens it up. A mare we sold for $40,000, the baby by her side was a Big Brown, but it was a New York-bred, and a really good foal. She's in foal to Maclean's Music, and I think a lot of people said, 'Man, if she can have a Maclean's Music that looks like that Big Brown, I'm rolling.'”

So much of selling a Thoroughbred comes down to getting the horse to look their best when they arrive at the sales grounds, and for those who might be looking to sell a young horse as a weanling in the fall, Taylor said moving ahead in the calendar to July might help a few horses be at their most marketable.

“When you're selling foals in the fall that have been weaned, it eliminates at least half of the foals from being good candidates, because the weaning process makes them go into a crash,” he said. “They get a weaning crash, where they lose weight, they lose their topline, they don't look as good as they did before, so this allows you to sell a foal that looks in good shape – still got that milk fat, looks good – but when you pull them off the mare, a lot of them just go really downhill, and you can't get them back to where they should be by November. This is just a whole new way to do commerce surrounding foals.

“A lot of times, you go look at all these babies before they're weaned, and I'll be giving a lot of high grades,” Taylor continued, “but then you go back and look at them in October when they've all just been weaned for a few months, all my grades go down, because they're pot-bellied, they've got no top line, they look like little guppies.”

From the group of six horses that sold for $100,000 or more on Monday from the breeding stock session, five of them came from outside the tentpole dispersal, proving there was buyer interest beyond the headline act.

There likely won't be a dispersal to serve as the foundation of future July Breeding Stock Sale catalogs, should it become an annual part of Fasig-Tipton's calendar, but solid returns among the sellers who took the chance in the new market could help fill catalogs in the future.

“The people that brought them thought there was an opportunity, and I agree with them,” said Pat Costello of consignor Paramount Sales. “I think it was a success.”

The post Selling Around The Dispersal: Sellers Navigated Uncharted Waters In Fasig-Tipton July Breeding Stock Sale appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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Golden Sixty Crowned Hong Kong Horse of the Year

Having secured champion 4-year-old honours in 2019-2020, courtesy of his sweep of the local Triple Crown, Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) capped a perfect 5-year-old campaign by being named the Horse of the Year in Hong Kong during ceremonies held Tuesday evening at Happy Valley Racecourse.

Bred in Queensland by Asco International Pty Ltd., Golden Sixty–an A$120,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast yearling turned NZ$300,000 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready To Run breezer, took his overall winning streak to 14 during the season and to 17 from 18 overall, using his trademark and devastating turn of foot to defeat the evergreen Southern Legend (Aus) (Not A Single Doubt {Aus}) and defending champion Admire Mars (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) for a breakthrough Group 1 success in the Longines Hong Kong Mile in December (see below).

After narrowly besting Southern Legend to win the G1 Stewards' Cup over the metric mile, trainer Francis Lui elected to stretch Golden Sixty back out in trip for the 2000-metre G1 Citi Hong Kong Gold Cup. In a slowly run affair, Vincent Ho set his mount alight three furlongs from home and looped the field, but fellow Derby winner Furore (NZ) (Pierro {Aus}) saved all the ground and the duo battled tooth and nail to the line, with Golden Sixty best by half a head (video). After giving serious consideration to taking on Japan in the G1 FWD QE II Cup in April, trainer Francis Lui stepped his charge back down for the G1 Champions Mile. It proved no easier, however, as his stablemate More Than This (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) ran him to a head in yet another nail-biting finish.

The lone finalist for champion miler, Golden Sixty was also named champion middle distance horse, earning the nod over Sky Darci (NZ) (Darci Brahma {NZ}). The connections of the latter did not leave Happy Valley empty-handed Tuesday, as they were rewarded for their victory in the BMW Hong Kong Derby with this year's champion 4-year-old prize. The NZ$160,000 NZBJAN graduate won five of his nine trips to the post for champion trainer Caspar Fownes and followed his Derby score with his first open stakes success in the G3 Lion Rock Trophy H.

WATCH: Golden Sixty becomes a Group 1 winner in the Longines Hong Kong Mile

In what would have been a hotly contested division, Hot King Prawn (Aus) (Denman {Aus}) was named champion sprinter on the strength of a long-overdue first Group 1 tally in the Centenary Sprint Prize in January, with champion jockey Joao Moreira in the saddle. The Torryburn Stud-bred veteran, an A$90,000 purchase out of the 2016 Inglis Sydney Classic sale, left a pair of potential future champions in his wake, including G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize hero Wellington (Aus) (All Too Hard {Aus}) and the unbeaten Courier Wonder (NZ) (Sacred Falls {NZ}), who debuted–like all unraced newcomers–off a mark of 52 in October and finished on 107 after winning the G3 Sha Tin Vase H. in late May. Courier Wonder was named most improved horse for the 2020-2021 season.

Panfield (Chi) (Lookin At Lucky), a good third to Sky Darci in the Derby, clinched champion stayer honours with his season-ending success in the G1 Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup over 2400 metres. The Chilean import could be set for the G1 Melbourne Cup, trainer Tony Millard told the HKJC press team Tuesday.

The David Hayes trained Fantastic Treasure (Aus) (Written Tycoon {Aus}) was unbeaten in five starts, including a Class 2 score in May, and was named champion griffin for horses aged two or three on the date of the first Hong Kong meeting of the season and which were unraced upon their import into Hong Kong.

The final fixture of the 2020-2021 Hong Kong season is set for Wednesday night at Happy Valley. Racing resumes in early September.

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