The 2-Year-Old Sale Sire Power Rankings have typically spotlighted the top five horses on the chart after a given sale, but with 121 stallions in the final rankings, there are plenty of others to recognize and celebrate.
Before we put the North American juvenile sale season to bed once and for all, let's take a look at some of the divisional leaders within the rankings that won their own races within the race.
As a reminder, here are the requirements to qualify for the Power Rankings. If you notice a sire is missing from the list, it's almost certainly because they didn't hit one of these marks:
1) At least five horses sold during a major 2023 juvenile sale, regardless of distance breezed.
2) At least five horses that breezed an eighth of a mile, whether they sold or not (as much as I love a good quarter-mile breeze, there just aren't enough horses doing them to make a fair average).
Also important to note: For the sake of calculating averages, I stretched out each breeze time from fifths to tenths. If you see a :9.8 time somewhere, do not adjust your stopwatches.
Let's get a look at those rankings one last time…
Freshman Sire
Omaha Beach, Spendthrift Farm
The race for the freshman sire title unofficially begins in the spring during the 2-year-old sale season, and Omaha Beach came out of it with all the momentum, finishing with the highest final rank of all rookie sires.
The multiple Grade 1-winning son of War Front spent some time in the top five over the course of the season, and he finished just on the outskirts in seventh, finishing well ahead of next-best Catalina Cruiser in 27th.
Freshman-sired offerings often enjoy a premium in the sale ring, and Omaha Beach was the biggest beneficiary of that bump in 2023, with his median 2-year-old sale price of $120,000 tying him for 17th overall and highest of all the rookie sires.
The top offering among the 36 Omaha Beach juveniles sold this year came during the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, where Clay Scherer, agent, went to $700,000 for a filly out of the winning Smart Strike mare Intelyhente. The filly, offered as Hip 532 and later named Coastal Invasion, is a half-sister to stakes-placed Count Alexander from the family of Canadian champion sprinter Stacked Deck. Wavertree Stables consigned the filly, as agent.
Coastal Invasion breezed an eighth in :9.8 seconds, which brings us to our next point…
Most Sub-:10 Second Breezes
Omaha Beach (Again)
It's one thing for a freshman sire to climb the charts because of the first-crop price bump they receive, but the Omaha Beaches came to play on the racetrack, as well.
The stallion ranked fifth overall with an average one-furlong breeze time of :10.215 seconds, and with 40 breezes at an eighth at major sales this year, that's not an easy number to maintain unless the horses are coming out firing.
Omaha Beach finished the season with seven juveniles clocking times under :10 flat – 17.5 percent of his overall workers – which was the most of any qualifying sire. Forty horses is a lot to throw at a bulk statistic like this, of course, but there were plenty of sires, both rookies and veterans, with comparable ranks who didn't get that many under the bar.
This is a fascinating turn of events for a horse that didn't break his maiden until January of his 3-year-old season and got better as his sophomore season progressed. Like overall Power Rankings leader Justify, it appears the quality of mares backing up Omaha Beach, combined with his own extremely high-level performances, has given him the ability to slide his window of opportunity ahead into the early 2-year-old season.
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If you appreciate our work, you can support us by subscribing to our Patreon stream. Learn more.Value Sire ($20k Or Lower Stud Fee In 2023)
Oscar Performance, Mill Ridge Farm
A member of the 2022-23 All-Value Sire Team that keeps proving that his stud fee is going to make a lot of people look very smart.
The 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner finished tied for 14th in the overall rankings, and he was easily the best among sires that a snap judgment would label as “turf-leaning.”
As a multiple graded stakes-winning 2-year-old, it makes sense that Oscar Performance's standing on this list was propelled by his offerings' breeze times. His average of :10.250 seconds put him 12th in that category, and it was achieved not with flashy sub-:10 times, but with a remarkable consistency.
Of his eight breezes at one furlong this season, four went in :10.2 seconds (remember, we're dealing in tenths, so that would be :10 1/5 on the board), and another three went in :10.4 seconds. The only outlier went in :10-flat. There were no duds.
Oscar Performance's median sale price of $75,000 ranked him 28th in that category. Leading the way was Zverev, a colt out of the multiple Grade 1 winner Balance who sold to Belladonna Racing for $330,000 at the OBS Spring Sale. Offered as Hip 64, the colt's page includes Horse of the Year Zenyatta and her dam, Broodmare of the Year Vertigineux. He was consigned by Eisaman Equine, agent.
Highest Ranking Sire Standing Outside Kentucky
Bucchero, Pleasant Acres Stallions
The 2-year-old sales are a big chunk of the economy for Florida's stallion market, so it makes sense that a resident of the Sunshine State would come out on top in this category.
Bucchero finished the season tied for 37th overall, finishing ahead of fellow Florida resident The Big Beast in 44th. He got to that lofty spot because his juveniles went out there and broke the stopwatch.
In addition to finishing 14th by average breeze time at :10.257 seconds, Bucchero sired of one of the seven runners to breeze a furlong in a season-best :9.6 seconds.
That came during the OBS June 2-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale when Hip 999, a filly named Etrurian sped across the Ocala Training Center before selling to Bill and Corinne Heiligbrodt for $100,000. Consigned by Britton Peak, agent, the Florida-bred Etrurian is out of the stakes-placed Imperialism mare Imperial Strike.
Etrurian was hardly a fluke among Bucchero's breezers in 2023. His four sub-:10 workers tied him for third-best among all qualifying sires, and he had another five go in :10-flat. Of his 28 works at one furlong, roughly a third of them went in :10-flat or faster. Not bad at all.
Biggest Year-To-Year Gain
Ghostzapper, Hill 'n' Dale Farms
It might seem more logical for a fast-rising young sire to take this category over one of the most established members of the North American stallion roster, but the biggest year-to-year jumps were almost all veterans, led by Horse of the Year Ghostzapper.
Ghostzapper finished 93rd in 2022, then improved 77 spots this year to 16th.
So, what changed? Just about everything.
In 2022, Ghostzapper's juveniles averaged a breeze time of :10.575 seconds and posted a median sale price of $30,000. A year later, the group averaged an eighth in :10.289 and sold for a median price of $120,000. Sometimes the first metric can help influence the second.
Ghostzapper has put near-seven-figure juveniles through the ring in the past, so he's certainly a known commodity in this segment of the marketplace. The market can certainly ebb and flow on veteran sires, and getting a 2022 Breeders' Cup winner in Filly and Mare Sprint victress Goodnight Olive certainly didn't hurt, as well, but recency bias can only make up so much ground compared to a solid crop of horses in the catalogs.
This year's most expensive Ghostzapper juvenile was Gettingawaywithit, a colt who sold to Muir Hut Stables for $575,000 at the OBS Spring Sale. The Florida-bred colt, offered as Hip 450, is out of the winning Malibu Moon mare Hannahanna, from the family of Grade 3 winner Silent Bird. Paul Sharp consigned the colt, as agent.
This crop of juveniles was the last one conceived at Adena Springs before Ghostzapper moved to Hill 'n' Dale Farms ahead of the 2021 breeding season. It will be worth watching if the new scenery will have any bearing on his market momentum going forward.
The post The 2023 2-Year-Old Sale Sire Power Rankings: Honoring The Divisional Standouts appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.
