‘The Good Ones Are Expensive’ – Fahey Snags $475k Into Mischief Colt At OBS

OCALA, FL – A flurry of late activity carried the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training to its conclusion Thursday in Ocala, with final numbers slightly off the auction's robust 2022 renewal.

“Coming off of a record gross of last year, I think we kind of held our own,” said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. “It seemed like the market held up through the entire season. There were no big surprises–the market is what the market is. There is money for the perceived higher quality horses and sometimes it can get a little tough in the middle.”

Over three days, 630 head sold for $23,777,900–down from a year ago when 666 horses sold for a sale record gross of $27,052,000. The sale average of $37,743 dropped 7.1% from a year ago, while the median dropped 10.6% to $21,000.  With 136 horses reported not sold, the buy-back rate was 17.8%. That figure is almost par with the 2022 figure of 17.4%, which includes post-sale transactions.

Three of the auction's top six prices came from its supplemental section late in Thursday's final session. John Fahey made the day's highest bid, going to $475,000 for a colt by Into Mischief who was consigned by Tom McCrocklin.

A total of 11 juveniles sold for $200,000 or more during the sale, compared to 21 who hit that mark last year.

The June sale was described throughout the week as polarized and spotty. Many of these same consignors who were selling 2-year-olds in Ocala this week will now be looking ahead to purchasing yearlings beginning next month in Lexington.

“We are putting together a plan on what we are going to do,” Randy Hartley said of expectations for Hartley/DeRenzo's strategy for the upcoming yearling sales.

Asked if he expected any perceived softening in the 2-year-old market this year would translate to the yearling sales, he said, “You don't know because horse people have amnesia. They will go right back there and we will be fighting over them in July.”

Playing at the top of the pinhooking market, Hartley/DeRenzo enjoyed a strong year in the sales ring.

“The market we play in is the most riskiest market but it's the safest market,” he said. “Because people with a lot of money want the best horses. It's what we do and it's the kind of horses we try to buy.”

The Gladwells' Top Line Sales topped the OBS March sale with a $2-million colt by Good Magic. Jimbo Gladwell admitted the operation will be more selective in its yearling purchases, but ultimately will maintain the same approach.

“I don't think we are going to change anything, but we are probably just going to be a little more particular about what we are buying,” Gladwell said. “The market seems really polarized towards perceived quality, but we are still going to shop every sale and just try to pick up quality horses where we find them.

“These last couple of sales have been tough, but it's mainly been tough on the ones that don't make the cut or reach the bar of what people set for what they think is acceptable. If you don't reach the bar, it's very difficult to get them sold. But as long as you jump through all of the hoops and they vet good, and are fast enough, you can do very well. You just have to be very particular when you are buying them because there is not much room for error.”

While the top end of the market inevitably takes care of itself, middle-market pinhookers have been more affected by the increased polarization in the juvenile market this spring.

“I am going to have to be very selective,” Bryan Rice of Woodside Ranch said of his yearling buying plans. “The horses that I was right on, I was able to succeed with. Any horse that I missed the mark at all on, it was pretty unforgiving. So, as I move forward, it has to be really a horse that strikes me in all aspects and that I really believe in.”

Asked if he expected a less competitive yearling market this fall, Rice said, “It probably will be. At least in the middle. I don't think there will be [any softening] in the top. I think it will stay strong, but those of us who make a living moving the intermediate horses, we are going to have to be really selective and really careful with our money.”

Into Mischief Colt Leads the Way Thursday

Bloodstock agent John Fahey made a pair of high-priced purchases on behalf of undisclosed clients from the supplemental section of the OBS June sale, ultimately paying a session-topping $475,000 for a colt by Into Mischief (hip 1074) just 10 hips from the auction's end. Consigned by Tom McCrocklin, the bay colt is out of Canadian champion Delightful Mary (Limehouse).

“He's a big, beautiful Into Mischief colt,” Fahey said of the juvenile who worked a quarter-mile in :21 flat. “He could be a stallion. We will go to the races and find out.”

Fahey said the colt's final price tag was not a surprise.

“Into Mischief is the best stallion in the world and he stands for $250,000,” Fahey said. “And they put all this work into him to get to this point and we get him for basically double the stud fee.”

A few hips earlier, Fahey went to $370,000 to acquire a filly by Flameaway (hip 1066).

“I bought her for a client of Justin Casse's,” Fahey said. “She did everything, jumped through all of the hoops. The good ones are expensive.”

The gray filly is out of Tomato Bisque (Macho Uno), a full-sister to graded winner Macho Macho (Macho Uno). Consigned by Julie Davies, the juvenile worked a furlong in :9 4/5.  She was purchased for $50,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

Fahey purchased six horses at the three-day auction; bidding on behalf of Stone Bridge Farm, he paid $52,000 for a filly by Violence (hip 703); on behalf of Lazy Creek, he paid $17,000 for a colt by Karakontie (Jpn) (hip 323); and as agent, he purchased a colt by Palace Malice (hip 601) for $20,000.

“I felt like if people didn't want to go to the races, you could buy a nice horse that vets for $150,000 easy,” Fahey said of the market at OBS this week. “But if they want to go to the races, they are going to protect them.”

Arrogate Colt to Delgado, Restrepo 

Ramiro Restrepo and Gustavo Delgado, Jr., who teamed up to purchase future GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) as a 2-year-old last year, put together a new partnership to acquire a colt from the last crop of Arrogate (hip 868) for $375,000 during Thursday's final session of the OBS June sale. Consigned by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds, the dark bay colt is out of Epic Scataway (Scat Daddy) and worked a furlong last week in :10 flat.

With time winding down on the juvenile sales season, Restrepo agreed there was a desire to acquire a colt by the late champion who was responsible for last week's GI Belmont S. winner Arcangelo.

“Obviously, when we look back at what Arrogate has done as a sire in his limited crops, it's unbelievable,” Restrepo said. “A Classic winner, graded stakes winners, it's just an incredible loss to the game. This is going to be one of the last available ones up for purchase. The colt had an extraordinary work and he is a tremendous physical. For us, we really buy in limited boutique numbers and this horse just kind fit everything we were looking for.”

Restrepo said Delgado was absolutely committed to buying the juvenile.

“Gustavo loved this horse to the moon,” Restrepo said. “He must have gone back to the barn six times and was so, so high on the horse. Arcangelo was our neighbor. Gustavo, Jr. saw Arcangelo walking the shedrow from day one, so he had a front row seat in seeing his development and seeing how these Arrogates progress. And this horse was in line with those other ones. So it just struck a chord with Jr., big time.”

The partnership also purchased a colt by Into Mischief (hip 477) for $300,000 at last month's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May sale–the same auction where they acquired Mage last spring.

“Our mindset is that we want to buy really nice racehorses with talent and ability that can go and be whatever they are going to be–champion sprinters, champion grass horses, middle-distance horses, Derby horses, whatever. We are looking for good, talented horses and hopefully it all comes together later this fall. Our mindset has always been the same, just find talented runners that can take us places, whether it's the Kentucky Derby or the Travers next year or whatever. We are just hoping for a fantastic effort and our new partners have fun.”

Hip 868 was named Victory Avenue when he went through the sales ring at OBS Thursday, but his path to the auction was anything but paved straight. He was purchased by Dean De Renzo and Randy Hartley for $150,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale. He returned to the sales ring in Ocala sporting an impressive scar across his neck.

“We have a night watchman who lives on the farm and he checked everything around 12-12:30 a.m. right around Christmas one night and everything was fine,” Hartley explained. “I came to the barn at 4 a.m. and he had gotten cast in his stall. He rubbed his shoulder and his back and took off pretty much all the hide. So he had to spend a month at the clinic, rehabbing and getting the hyperbaric chamber and getting him to heal good.”

Hartley said the colt didn't get broke until April and he almost didn't take the handsome dark bay to the June sale.

“I didn't think after the year we had that Dean was going to make me come, but we had another colt in the sale and he said, 'Why don't you just take the black colt?' I said, 'He's never breezed before.' We started to break him in April. But he came over here and he was training like he's a little professional.”

Hartley/DeRenzo had a good spring with offspring of Arrogate. At the OBS Spring sale, the consignment sold a colt by the late sire for $1.45 million. At the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May sale, the consignment topped the sale with a $1-million daughter of the late champion.

“I know there are no more Arrogates, so I'm like what am I going to buy now?” Hartley said. “I guess I'll be buying some Good Magics and some Justifys–I love the Justifys.”

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A Derby-Winning Duo: The Father and Son Team Behind Mage

When Gustavo Delgado Jr. was a young boy, his father would drag him out of bed early every morning to go to the racetrack. Growing up in a household that also included his mother, two sisters and a female cousin, Delgado eventually came to look forward to those trackside adventures spending quality time with his father Gustavo Delgado Sr., a member of the Caribbean Racing Hall of Fame as a three-time winner of Venezuela's equivalent of the Triple Crown.

As a teenager, Delgado Jr. relished the celebrity-like status that came with being the son of a local legend.

“He has always been sort of a superhero for me because he has always been at the top wherever he's been,” explained Delgado. “Everywhere we went, people were always asking for tips, asking who to bet on that weekend, that kind of thing. I grew up with that and I always felt special because that was my dad.”

In 2014, the elder Delgado decided to leave a thriving stable in his home country behind at the age of 60 and pursue a lifelong dream of making it to the top of the game in the U.S. It wasn't long before the Delgado name was well known on the Florida racing circuit.

One year after his father moved to the States, Delgado Jr. made a trip to New York to watch American Pharoah claim the 2015 Triple Crown. Before traveling back home, he made a quick stop in Miami to visit his father. While there, his father pitched him on staying in Florida to be his assistant.

At first, Delgado Jr. was hesitant. When his father left Venezuela, Delgado was left in charge of their home stable and he was excited to be overseeing some nice local horses on his own at the age of 28. But ultimately, he decided to follow his father and the vision he had been painting for his son since childhood.

“Since I was a little kid, he was telling me all the time that we should go and try to win one of those races,” Delgado recalled. “Every time the big Classics came on, we were all watching from Venezuela. He always told me that he didn't have any doubt that if we had the right horse, we could win. So he was kind of selling me his dreams, and I bought them all.”

After the Delgados joined forces in America, their stable continued to flourish. They had their first Grade I winner in the U.S. in 2016 with Paulo Queen (Flatter) in the GI Test S. 2016 GII Mac Diarmida S. victor Grand Tito (Candy Ride {Arg}) and Speed Franco (Declaration of War), who won the 2018 GIII Dania Beach S., also helped them gain recognition early. They went to their first GI Kentucky Derby in 2019 with Bodexpress (Bodemeister), who finished 13th but later became a Grade I winner in the 2020 Clark S.

Leading in a Kentucky Derby winner | Coady

Delgado Jr. said that the father-son pair has always worked well together, but he laughed and gave a wry grin when asked about if they ever run into any training-related disagreements.

“We're best friends more than a relationship between father and son,” he explained. “I always say that I'm his biggest fan. Of course, he's not perfect. He can be stubborn. He's like a Lambo. He can go from zero to 200 miles per hour in five seconds. Me, I'm more quiet and chill. I try to be the guy who makes him more chill. When an employee wants to give us bad news, they always come to me first because they don't want to tell him. I'm like the middle man.”

“He's a genuine guy,” he continued. “I mean, my dad  will tell you straight away what he thinks. A filter? He doesn't use that. But that's a good thing about him. I love that about him.”

So, with decades of familiarity with his father's outspokenness, when Delgado Jr. bought a rather pricey chestnut 2-year-old last year and his father made it known that he was not too keen on the purchase, Delgado did not bat an eye.

“Fun fact, he didn't like the horse the first time he saw him,” Delgado said. “He didn't like him because he's got parrot mouth. I remember he looked at me and said, 'The next time you are buying a horse, send me a video first and don't buy a parrot mouth.' But I told him, 'Trust me, this guy can run.'”

That horse, who came to be known as Mage (Good Magic), will be Delgado's forever reminder to trust his instincts. With partner Ramiro Restrepo, he stretched their budget to $290,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale to bring home a future GI Kentucky Derby winner.

“Sometimes it's about following your gut, your intuition,” he said. “I loved the horse. We didn't have the money. We had the credit, but not the money. I told Ramiro, 'Listen, this is the horse. We shouldn't be hesitating. This is the horse we're getting and then we'll find out where the money is going to come from.'”

“It played out well,” he added.

At 15-1 odds, Mage brought home a Kentucky Derby victory for the Delgados' OGMA Investments and Ramiro Restrepo, along with Sam Herzberg's Sterling Racing LLC and Brian Doxtator and Chase Chamberlin's Commonwealth. The Delgados' lifelong dream had come to fruition.

Seeing all his family members gathering around for a photo in the winner's circle, Delgado Jr. said, brought back memories of when he was a little boy celebrating big wins with his father back in their home country.

“My mom, my two sisters and my nephews and nieces were here together,” he said. “My nieces and nephews are so little–they are between five and nine years old–and for them to have that kind of experience, I think that was one of the things that I feel most proud of. I know they will never forget being there. When you're so little, that goes through your subconscious. That will stay with you forever. So they will look at my dad like a superhero and maybe me as well.”

All systems are officially 'go' for a trip to Baltimore this weekend, as the Mage team confirmed Friday morning. Delgado Jr.'s confidence in his horse is at an all-time high ahead of next Saturday's GI Preakness S.

“Everything about him special,” he said of Mage. “He's fast and he's got a good mind. He's so quiet. When he's around an environment that might be noisy with people around him, he's so chill about it. [He is able to] go in between horses during the race. He can keep back, he can be in the middle, inside or outside. He doesn't care about anything like that.”

No matter the outcome in the Preakness, or how far their success grows from here, the Delgados will always remember Mage as the horse that made a lifelong dream become a reality.

“It's been overwhelming in a good way,” Delgado Jr. said as he reflected on an unforgettable week. “When you ask what was the purpose of accomplishing something like this, it's about showing people that it can be done. Because the thing is, if you look back on not having the same resources, not having the same tools [as other] people trying to accomplish something like this, it gives you a good perspective that it can be done. This just started with a vision, with a dream. We imagined that we can do it. We didn't know where that horse was coming from or where the money was coming from. We didn't have a plan. We just wanted to do it.”

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Ramiro Restrepo Joins The TDN Writers’ Room

Ramiro Restrepo has done a little bit of everything in the racing industry and now he has something else to add to his resume, GI Kentucky Derby winning owner. Restrepo is one of the owners of Mage (Good Magic), the winner of the 149th Derby. To share his thoughts on the race and what it meant to him, Restrepo joined this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast, presented by Keeneland. He was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week.

“I still can't sleep,” said an emotional Restrepo. “I keep watching the race. I can't believe that we won. We won it. It's incredible. The emotion is totally raw. I haven't really been able to put it behind me. I'm still just soaking it up.”

Restrepo has been there from the start. Along with Gustavo Delgado, Jr, the assistant to his father, Gustavo Delgado, Sr., he picked Mage out at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale 2022, where he was purchased for $290,000. (He sold the prior year as a yearling at Keeneland September for $235,000). From there he was sent to the Delgado barn and made the quick transition from being a first-time-starter on Jan. 28 at Gulfstream to the Kentucky Derby winner.

“We knew we had a talented colt,” Restrepo said. “He had shown flashes of being really fast. But I didn't know anything back in January. And anyone who ever says I knew I was buying a Derby winner when it happened is just doing it for pomp and circumstance. In reality, you always try to buy just a nice horse, whether that means a champion sprinter or a monster turf horse or whatever. You're over the moon with that. But what happened with this horse, it is just like a Hollywood ending.”

The GI Preakness will be next and for Mage, it may only be a matter of holding his form from the Derby. But for a horse who is coming back in two weeks and had only three races to prepare him for the Derby, will that happen?

“That's what makes this such a hard series to compete in,” he said. “And that's what adds to the special mystical flair of the two-week turnaround and of the Triple Crown. You have to deal with the cards that are in front of you. The horse was never really pushed to get ready for his maiden. So it's not like he ran 20 races in the morning. The races are making him, and he is evolving physically and mentally. We keep waiting, much like everybody else, for signs that the races have gotten to him physically or mentally. He's flesh and blood and at some point it's just the natural way of the animal, those things catch up to them.  No one can answer that question, but the horse at the moment came out of the race as good as one could ever ask for. What you have to do is ride the wave and see how long you can ride it.”  .

Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by Coolmore,https://lanesend.com/  the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association, Kentucky Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders1/st Racing, WinStar Farm, XBTV, Lane's End and https://www.threechimneys.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, podcast regulars Zoe Cadman, Randy Moss and Bill Finley dealt with the unpleasant aspects of this year's Derby. Seven horses died in the lead up to the race, including two on Derby day. There was an agreement that it was a very difficult couple of days for the sport and that the message sent out by the mainstream press shed racing in a very bad light. Did we have all the answers? Not really. It doesn't seem that anyone does.

Click for the video of the latest podcast or the audio-only version.

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Mage Team Enjoying Derby Win, Eyeing Preakness

The team behind GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic) was still savoring the colt's Classic victory on a rainy Sunday morning in Louisville, while taking a wait-and-see approach about a potential start in the May 20 GI Preakness S.

“The horse is looking very good. I checked with the vet, and he's fine,” trainer Gustavo Delgado, Sr. said. “Winning the Kentucky Derby is different than winning the Triple Crown and Simon Bolivar in Venezuela. It's the same but different. It was a very happy experience to win the Kentucky Derby with my son and family here. When we go out there and work every day, every day, every day, it's the best. Winning the Kentucky Derby was the goal. This is a good thing.”

Co-owner Ramiro Restrepo acknowledged how special the victory was for the entire team.

“For all of us, this was a lot of time dedication and sacrifice more than anything from these two boys [Delgado and assistant trainer/co-owner Gustavo Delgado Jr.],” Restrepo said. “This is a game that you lose way more than you win. It's a labor of love. You're just dream chasing. Today is very special for all of us. This is the top of the mountain in this sport for so many. Everyone knows the Kentucky Derby around the world. It's arguably, if not the, top race in the world. We had that dream come true. For one brief second, we can exhale, and look up, and enjoy this moment.”

Mage is likely to remain at Churchill Downs for several days and could return to the track as soon as Tuesday.

Should he line-up in the Preakness, Mage may face a rematch with Forte (Violence), who was scratched with a foot bruise as the morning-line favorite for Saturday's Derby.

Trainer Todd Pletcher termed Forte's foot “good” Sunday morning and said the champion should have a timed workout in the next few days. Forte, who galloped Saturday morning before being withdrawn from the Derby, did not train Sunday but will go back to the track Monday, Pletcher said.

“If he runs in the Preakness, then he'd probably not run in the Belmont,” Pletcher said of Forte's possible next starts. “We'd probably focus on the Travers after that, have a race before in the Jim Dandy or Haskell.”

Forte defeated Mage by one length in the Apr. 1 GI Curlin Florida Derby.

“I think it maybe puts some of the naysayers about the Florida Derby and [that] Forte didn't run a good race…to rest,” Pletcher said of Mage's Derby win justifying the form of the Florida Derby. “But we know he's a special horse: champion 2-year-old, Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner, two-for-two at three.”

Trainer Steve Asmussen saddled Disarm (Gun Runner) to a fourth-place finish in Saturday's Derby. That colt is under consideration for the Preakness, as is stablemate and GII Rebel S. runner-up Red Route One (Gun Runner).

“I was very happy with how Disarm came out of the race, bright and alert and traveling well,” Asmussen said. “He's a tough horse. We thought Disarm ran solid. We wanted a little better result, but he competes well against the best 3-year-olds in the country and we expect him to continue to get better.”

Red Route One, who earned a fees-paid berth in the Preakness by virtue of winning Oaklawn Park's Bath House Row S., worked five furlongs in 1:01.20 (2/8) Sunday at Churchill.

Derby runner-up Two Phil's (Hard Spun) is considered possible for the Preakness, as is 10th-place finisher Confidence Game (Candy Ride {Arg}).

While Brad Cox said it was unlikely any of his four Derby runners would start back in the Preakness, the trainer is expected to be represented in the race by GIII Stonestreet Lexington S. winner First Mission (Street Sense). The dark bay colt worked five furlongs in :59.80 (3/23) at Churchill Saturday.

“Right now, First Mission is our Preakness horse,” Cox said. “I don't know if we'll add any of these horses, but we'll have to make a decision soon. First Mission had a fantastic work yesterday. I'm very happy with what we're seeing.”

Non-Derby horses under consideration for the Preakness include Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo), National Treasure (Quality Raod), Blazing Sevens (Good Magic), Il Miracolo (Gun Runner), Henry Q (Blame), and Instant Coffee (Bolt d'Oro).

Chase the Chaos (Astern {Aus}), who earned an automatic berth in the Preakness for his victory in the El Camino Real Derby at Golden Gate Fields, is also being considered. Perform (Good Magic), winner of the Federico Tesio at Laurel Park, also has a spot, but would need to be supplemented for $150,000 on entry day to run.

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