Recent stakes impact OBS sale

The results from the starstudded Belmont Stakes card will continue to reverberate through the racing world, as the major Grade 1 stakes on the card have implications in various divisional races heading into the second half of the year. But the results also will have a ripple effect into the bloodstock world, boosting the value of various stallions and families, and perhaps also rippling into the auction ring at this week’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s June sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age.

The OBS June sale, which concludes the juvenile market calendar in North America, is set for Wednesday through Friday. Several stallions who were prominent on the Belmont Stakes card are represented in the catalog, including Awesome Again, the sire of Belmont winner Sir Winston. A few juveniles also got catalog updates from the race results, including a close relative of Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap winner Mitole.

Awesome Again recorded his second American classic winner with Sir Winston joining 2013 Preakness Stakes winner and Belmont runner-up Oxbow. The stallion also is the sire of 2012 Belmont runner-up Paynter and 2018 Preakness runner-up Bravazo. Awesome Again has just one horse in the catalog for OBS June, and the colt is from an outstanding female family. His dam is a halfsister to Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic winner Unrivaled Belle, the dam of two-time Eclipse Award champion Unique Bella.

Oxbow is represented by six juveniles in the catalog prior to sale-week outs, while Paynter has 13. Awesome Again’s best son at stud, 2004 Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, has seven, and he is coming off a solid weekend himself. Ghostzapper was represented by his latest Grade 1 winner on Saturday when Guarana defeated Kentucky Oaks winner Serengeti Empress in the Acorn Stakes in just her second career outing. Ghostzapper’s juveniles made themselves standouts on a crowded leaderboard at last week’s five-session under-tack preview show. He finished with a filly among the 11 tied for the fastest furlong, at 9 4/5 seconds on the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack surface. He also finished with a colt who tied for the lead among the smaller group of horses to work three furlongs, going in 32 3/5 seconds. That colt was among those who got a femalefamily catalog update from the Belmont Stakes program, as he is a half-brother to Come Dancing, who finished second to favored Midnight Bisou in the Grade 1 Ogden Phipps Stakes. Come Dancing, who earlier this year won the Grade 3 Distaff Handicap and Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes, and this colt are out of the Grade 2-winning Tiznow mare Tizahit.

Another juvenile getting a major update to his catalog page was an Honor Code colt out of the Smoke Glacken mare Glacken’s Gal, already the dam of Grade 2 winner Live Lively. She also produced Indian Miss, whose son Mitole has now won seven consecutive races after his triumph over a star-studded field in the Metropolitan.

Champion Honor Code, who is from the final crop of A.P. Indy, is among this year’s outstanding class of freshman sires – and several of those made noise during the undertack preview show. Freshmen Bourbon Courage, Chitu, and Lea were among the group of sires with juveniles tied for the fastest furlong. Meanwhile, freshmen Daredevil and Race Day were among the trio tied for the fastest quarter-mile time, with juveniles working in 20 3/5 seconds.

Daredevil is by More Than Ready, who has continued to build his stallion résumé throughout the spring, with his son Catholic Boy returning to the races in winning fashion in the Grade 2 Dixie Stakes on the Preakness Stakes undercard, and his daughter Rushing Fall already owning a pair of Grade 1 victories this season, including the Just a Game Stakes on the Belmont undercard. More Than Ready also had a filly tied for the fastest furlong, and a colt tied for the fastest three-furlong work.