OBS October Sale Kicks Off Tuesday

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's October Yearling Sale kicks off Tuesday with a selected yearlings session, which will be followed by an open yearlings session Wednesday.

Tuesday's session gets underway at noon with Hips 1-185 and is followed by the supplements, which are Hips 186-209. Wednesday's session begins at 10 a.m. with Hips 251-660 and followed by a section of supplements, which are Hips 661-684.

“We are certainly excited seeing what has transpired in the yearling market so far this year,” said OBS's Tod Wojciechowski. “The graduates of this sale have been doing very well lately both at the racetrack and at the next level of the market.”

During last year's selected yearlings portion, 104 head sold for $4,539,000 with an average of $43,644 and a median of $32,000. That session was topped by a $170,000 colt by Midnight Storm.

A total of 281 yearlings sold during the open session in 2021 for a gross of $5,224,500 with an average of $18,593 and median of $15,000. The topper during that session was a $170,000 Ransom the Moon colt.

In total, 385 yearlings summoned $9,763,500 at last year's October Sale with an average of $25,360 and median of $19,000. Both of the aforementioned session/co-sale toppers were sold by Lisa McGreevy's Abbie Road Farm.

Recent noteworthy graduates of the OBS October Sale include Friday's GII J.P. Morgan Chase Jessamine S. winner Delight (Mendelssohn), GI Santa Anita Oaks winner Desert Dawn (Cupid) and MSW Outfoxed (Valiant Minister).

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OBS October Yearling Sale Catalog Online

The catalog for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's 2022 October Yearling Sale is now available via the OBS website at www.obssales.com. The two-day sale is set for Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 11 and 12. Supplemental entries will be accepted until Sept. 23. To view the sale page, click here.

OBS will offer Online Bidding during the October Sale. Buyers will be able to go to the OBS website and register to gain bidding approval, then access the OBS Bidding Screen with their credentials. For complete information on registration and online bidding please go to the OBS website: obs-online-bidding.

The iPad version of the catalog can be accessed via the equineline Sales Catalog App. The App allows users to download and view the catalog, receive updates and results, record notes and also provides innovative search, sort and rating capability.

For more information, visit obs@obssales.com.

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Classic Bases Loaded for Sire On The Up

Nobody has missed the explosive impact of Not This Time's second crop of sophomores on the Classic trail this year. But the fact remains that it's actually another stallion in his own intake that we find flirting most plausibly with an elusive distinction, with a chance of joining King Alfonso (1885), McGee (1918), Bull Lea (1952) and Native Dancer (1966) in siring the winners of both the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Oaks.

Okay, so we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. With nearly two months to go, it would be quite something just to get Zandon and Kathleen O into the gate with as feasible a chance as they appear to have right now. But whatever happens from here, I think we need to salute the work of their sire in getting that pair even this far, while standing at just $10,000.

His name, of course, is Upstart–and a clever name it is, too, for a son of Flatter out of the Touch Gold mare Party Silks. And now it's proving a very apt one, as well, with Upstart showing a real flair for upward mobility.

His third crop of juveniles, now on the launchpad, graduate from a book of just 38 covers. We all know how childish is the attention span of commercial breeders, but this was still a pretty ridiculous drop after he had opened with 146 mares–which, on a farm as exemplary as Airdrie, absolutely represented full subscription.

From the moment he could be judged on his own merits, however, Upstart has decisively reversed that customary drift. His first yearlings averaged more than six times his fee, promptly renewing traffic to 90 mares the following spring. And then, sure enough, they went out and showed that they can run: initially as a knockout pinhook medium, his first two crops averaging $107,791 and $113,250 at the 2-year-old sales; and after that–as could be anticipated from his own record, dual Grade I-placed in three consecutive campaigns–when permitted to stretch their capacity for a bullet breeze to a more meaningful span.

Kathleen O. herself is a perfect example. She was discarded to Shooting Star Thoroughbreds for just $8,000 as a weanling, having been acquired in utero with a mare whose principal appeal to her purchasers, Gainesway and Bridlewood, was evidently to assist the launch of Tapwrit. The following fall Kathleen O. was back under the hammer, advancing her value to $50,000, sold by Stuart Morris to Aurora Bloodstock at the OBS October Sale. Returning to the same ring last April, however, she had blossomed so athletically (blasted a quarter in 21-and-change) that Shug McGaughey gave $275,000.

“Niall Brennan had told us a month or two before how much he loved his Upstart filly,” recalls Bret Jones of Airdrie. “And then when I saw that Shug had signed the ticket on her–as we know, Shug doesn't sign too many auction tickets–I took that as another very encouraging sign. It's been a lot of fun watching it play out the way we sure hoped.”

Yes, it has. Racing in the silks of debut owner Pat Kearney's Winngate Stables, Kathleen O. retains an immaculate record: pouncing late for an Aqueduct maiden on debut; then romping by over eight in the Cash Run S. at Gulfstream; and now, off a lay-off, wrecking the unbeaten record of Classy Edition (Classic Empire) in the GII Davona Dale S. over the same track last weekend.

Young stallions are under enormous pressure to deliver, in the narrowest of windows, and Upstart has unequivocally seized his chance. From the outset, he has achieved terrific yields at ringside and then shown why on the track. He was admittedly unlucky with his flagship Reinvestment Risk, who made good money for investors twice over as a $140,000 Fasig-Tipton July yearling and then a $280,000 OBS March 2-year-old, duly romping on debut at Saratoga before then finishing second in consecutive Grade Is. After disappointing at the Breeders' Cup, he made a single sophomore start and it was only last month that he resumed with a 103 Beyer on his comeback at Gulfstream–a performance that clearly sets him up for a return to elite company this summer.

“As a 2-year-old Reinvestment Risk had the bad luck to chase Jackie's Warrior through two very fast Grade Is,” Jones remarks. “I think his numbers would have won just about every other early graded 2-year-old race that year. So, while he didn't get that level of win, I think just about everybody shared the opinion that he had that level of talent.”

In his absence, Upstart's debut crop found a new focus in Masqueparade. Having raised $100,000 as a weanling and $180,000 as a yearling, he won the GIII Ohio Derby before finishing a good third to Essential Quality (Tapit) in the GII Jim Dandy S.

“Masquerade is also on the comeback trail,” Jones notes. “I spoke with Al Stall when I was down at the Fair Grounds and they're very bullish on what kind of 4-year-old he could be. He's big, beautiful and always seemed destined to be a good older horse. If you go back to his race on Kentucky Derby day [won optional allowance by a dozen lengths], he ran a very similar if not slightly faster Ragozin number than the best horses in the Derby.”

That renowned judge Mike Ryan had found Reinvestment Risk for the Chad Brown barn and the same pair returned to Upstart's second crop for Zandon, homebred from an unraced Creative Cause mare by Brereton C. Jones/Airdrie, as a $170,000 Keeneland September yearling. Zandon won a Belmont sprint on debut before losing out by a nose in the GII Remsen S., many being perplexed that he was not awarded the prize after being baulked late by Mo Donegal (Uncle Mo). On his return, he shaped really well against the flow of the GII Risen S., rank in the rear after a clumsy start but retaining enough energy to circle the field for third.

So anyone can see that we're already looking at a pretty impressive body of work for a horse standing for this kind of money. But there's something else I want to highlight that really sets Upstart apart. We've seen that he can look after breeders commercially; and we've seen that he can reward investors in the next cycle with real quality on the racetrack. But what I really like is that he's such a cast-iron source of “run”.

By the end of 2021, with a second crop of juveniles up and running, Upstart had managed to put no fewer than 114 of 149 named foals onto the track, including 65 winners. Those respectively represented 77% and 44% of his output. Compare those ratios with the handful who banked more prizemoney last year. Not This Time had 66% starters to named foals, and 35% winners; Nyquist, 61 and 26 %, respectively; Frosted 71 and 30%; Runhappy, 55 and 28%; and the lamented Speightster, 66 and 33%.

Those stats speak for themselves. Yet all bar one of these rivals, Runhappy, were working from books so much bigger than those assembled by Upstart that even their markedly inferior conversion rate–in terms of racetrack action–left them more starters. So his five stakes winners in 2021 stacked up admirably against all bar the freakish 13 assembled by Not This Time: Speightster had three, while Runhappy, Frosted and Nyquist had six apiece. We have meanwhile lost poor Speightster, but the fact remains that Upstart remains a lower fee than all the others.

This evolving trademark makes a lot of sense in a horse that showed up so reliably through three campaigns in the best company. Forward enough for a 102 Beyer at two, surely unique in a son of Flatter, Upstart started out winning a maiden and then a stake at Saratoga before placing in the GI Champagne and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile; he then beat Frosted by five in the GII Holy Bull S.; and matured to a supporting role in races like the GI Haskell, GI Met Mile and GI Whitney.

Jones is duly unsurprised by Upstart's excellence in literally getting you a runner. “He was a very sound horse himself,” he stresses. “He was an early-developing 2-year-old of Grade I caliber, even though his pedigree may not have screamed that. Then as a 3-year-old, he was one of the best Derby hopes on the East Coast before training on to be right there in very big races at four. With that stout Flatter-A.P. Indy blood behind him, there were a lot of reasons to hope that he could get sound horses that would keep getting better with age. And that does seem to be the case.”

This profile is underpinned by a pedigree that has plainly imparted both precocity and refinement to the kind of rangy, two-turn physique associated with the sire-line. Touch Gold is indeed gold as a broodmare sire, combining Deputy Minister and another legendary distaff brand in Buckpasser; and Upstart's third dam is by another copper-bottomed such influence in Drone. Beyond that, the family was cultivated through four generations by Federico Tesio himself, rooted in his foundation mare Tofanella (GB) (to whom Upstart's fifth dam is inbred 3 x 3).

Though Upstart's dam was unraced, her half-sister won the

GII Raven Run S. during an 8-for-27 career spread seamlessly across four campaigns. And his third dam, herself a graded stakes-placed half-sister to a multiple Grade I performer, also produced a graded stakes winner plus the mother of a top-class Japanese sprinter in Nobo Jack (French Deputy).

Despite his name, then, it seems as though Upstart has been an aristocrat all along. Both Zandon and Kathleen O., remember, are the very first foals out of their respective dams to make the racetrack–and Upstart, straight off the bat, is moving them right up in the world.

“We love that these Upstarts can make money for their breeders, then can handle the 2-year-old sales and go on to be early horses that train on,” Jones observes. “That's not an easy combination to pull off, but he's giving us a lot of reasons to believe that he can. He has a chance to be that great blend: the stallion that can get you a runner, as well as an expensive sales horse. Hopefully, he will now keep developing that commercial profile, as these horses continue to run fast.”

Certainly Jones expects Upstart to be back to a full book this year, a vivid measure of the way he has seized the fleeting chances he was given. Those who can get aboard this spring, then, will surely be ahead of the game by the time they come to sell the resulting foals. After all, he has come up with Zandon and Kathleen O. from a phase when he was, relatively speaking, marking time. And pending the next cycle we can expect his stock, thriving with maturity, to keep his name in lights.

“We got 86 mares to him the second year,” Jones says. “And from those 86 mares bred, he has these two really outstanding 3-year-olds. So, he's shown that he doesn't need the big numbers to have success. And now that he's finally going to have that opportunity again, now that you can add the kind of quality and numbers we think are in his future, then there's a real pipeline taking shape behind him. To us, there are a lot of reasons to be excited about Upstart.”

 

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Ransom The Moon Colt Tops OBS Open Yearling Sale

Hip No. 442, a son of Ransom the Moon consigned by Abbie Road Farm (Lisa McGreevy), Agent, went to Redwings for $170,000 to top the open session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's 2021 October Yearling Sale. The dark bay or brown colt is out of Bold Lady, by Aikenite, a half sister to Grade 1-placed stakes winner Mambo in Seattle.

  • Hip No. 406, a daughter of Awesome Slew consigned by Camelot Acres Racing and Sales, Agent, was sold to RiceHorse, Agent, for $100,000. The bay filly, a half sister to stakes winning OBS Yearling Sale graduate Hear My Prayer, is out of Additional Prayer, by Songandaprayer.
  • Hip No. 318, a daughter of Tunwoo consigned by Stuart Morris, Agent, went to Eddie Plesa, Agent for Karl & Cathi Glassman, for $85,000. The dark bay or brown filly, out of stakes winner Savingtime, by Kantharos, is a half sister to OBS Yearling Sale graduate Outfoxed, winner of two stakes in three starts including Gulfstream's recent FTBOA Florida Sire My Dear Girl Stakes.
  • S B M Training and Sales went to $70,000 for Hip No. 523, a son of Kantharos consigned by K P Sales, Agent. The bay colt, out of stakes winner Frisk Her, by Officer, is a half brother to graded stakes placed OBS graduate Takeoff.
  • Hip No. 287, Fortheloveofart, a son of Noble Bird consigned by Kim Harrison (Top Speed Farm), Agent, was sold to Moonshadow for $60,000. The bay colt is a half-brother to graded stakes winning OBS Yearling Sale graduate Jalen Journey, winner of the recent Grade 3 De Francis Memorial Stakes, out of Petunia Face, by Congrats.

For the session, 276 yearlings sold for a total of $5,173,500, compared with 258 bringing a total of $2,811,900 a year ago. The average price was $18,745, up 72 percent compared with $10,899 in 2020, while the median price was $15,000 double the $7,500 figure a year ago. The buyback percentage was 18.1 percent compared with 21.3 percent a year ago.

At Tuesday's Selected Yearling Sale, 108 horses sold for a total of $4,714,000, up 38.8 percent compared with 86 yearlings bringing $3,397,000 a year ago. The average price was $43,648, up 10.5 percent compared with $39,500 last year, while the median price was $32,000, rising 14.3 percent compared with $28,000 in 2020. The buyback percentage was 19.4 percent; it was 36.3 percent a year ago.

Hip No. 67, a son of Midnight Storm consigned by Abbie Road Farm (Lisa McGreevy), Agent, was sold to Elusive Thoroughbreds for $170,000 to top the Selected Sale of Yearlings. The dark bay or brown colt is out of stakes winner Sterling Madame, by Unbridled Energy.

The next item on the OBS agenda is the 2022 Winter Mixed Sale, including the Horses of Racing Age section, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, Jan. 25 – 26.

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