OBS June caps juvenile season

The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s June sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age brought the formal North American juvenile sale season to a close Thursday night, with most of this spring’s sales posting gains in key figures.

Although market opportunities still exist for individual juveniles in upcoming horses of racing age sales, or the digital sales that have begun to proliferate the marketplace, the OBS June sale was the final major opportunity to secure a 2-year-old at public auction in the season dedicated to this marketplace, which began in March. Five major-market sales in which 2-year-olds made up the entire or vast majority of the catalog were conducted among two of the nation’s three leading auction companies – three by OBS, and two by Fasig-Tipton. Keeneland held a horses of racing age sale in late April, in which 2-year-olds were featured in the catalog but were outshone by experienced racehorses.

The OBS March and April sales both posted gains in their average price compared to 2021, while the June sale dipped by 5 percent.

The median improved significantly at all three OBS juvenile sales, spiking 25 percent in March, 30 percent in April, and 25 percent in June. The April and June figures were sale records. The median is considered particularly important in assessing the health of the overall marketplace as it represents a cross section of the activity and is less influenced by outlying horses than the average price.

“A lot of horses got sold at a lot of different levels, and that is always a good thing, particularly for the last sale of the year,” OBS director of sales Tod Wojciechowski told the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association following the June sale, which also established a record for gross sales. “The record median is a better tell-tale than the record gross. As the median creeps up, we’re still getting horses traded at the lower price levels but covering all of our bases.”

The Fasig-Tipton sales also both posted respectable figures. At the company’s boutique single-session sale at Gulfstream Park, considered an upper-market test, results were steady. The average price was down less than 1 percent, while the median was unchanged from the 2021 figure. The company’s Midlantic sale in Maryland in mid-May compared well to its record figures established in 2021; the average ticked upward 1 percent to establish a new high-water mark, while the median was down 6 percent.

An extremely selective marketplace continued this season. The buyback rate was up at three of the five sales compared to 2021, although generally by only a few percentage points. The Midlantic sale saw the biggest rise in the buyback rate, finishing at 19 percent this year, compared to 16 percent last year

There were a dozen juveniles sold for seven-figure price tags across the season, with the record-smashing sale of a $3.55 million Bernardini colt at Fasig-Tipton Midlantic leading the way. Bloodstock agent and clocker Gary Young, acting as agent for Amr Zedan’s Zedan Racing, secured the colt, who is named Berning Remarks.

The New York-bred Bernardini colt, who is from the third-to-last crop by his sire, had preceded his record sale with a historically noteworthy performance in the under-tack preview show. He blitzed a furlong in 9 4/5 seconds on the five-furlong dirt track at the Maryland State Fairgrounds in Timonium, the fastest work at that sale since 2012.

Following that, the colt’s price smashed the previous sale record of $1.8 million, which Michael Lund Petersen paid for eventual Eclipse Award champion Gamine in 2019.

The colt became the highestpriced 2-year-old sold in North America since Cezanne, now a multiple graded stakes winner. Cezanne fetched $3.65 million at the 2019 Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale, pre-pandemic. The colt also is the highest-priced horse ever sold at public auction in Maryland, the highest-priced New York-bred sold at public auction, and the highest-priced horse ever sold at public auction worldwide by Bernardini.

The colt was consigned by Becky Thomas’s Sequel Bloodstock, as agent for Chester and Mary Broman, perennial leading breeders in New York.

“We had huge expectations, and he exceeded them,” said Sequel assistant Carlos Manresa, also Thomas’s sonin-law and general counsel at Sequel.

The colt is out of the winning Medaglia d’Oro mare G Note, dam of three winners from as many starters. This is the family of Grade 1 winners Antespend and Friends Lake and graded stakes winners Seeking the Ante and Un Ojo.

Young bid on the recordpriced colt with Bob Baffert, the regular trainer for Zedan, in attendance. Baffert, who handled the star-crossed Medina Spirit for Zedan, is serving a 90-day suspension that runs through July 2 before he can assume training of this horse and several others that will be headed his way from this 2-year-old sale season.

Zedan also purchased the second highest-priced horse of the season, a $2.3 million Uncle Mo colt at the OBS April sale, also with Young acting as his agent.

The colt, who was consigned by Top Line Sales, as agent, is the first foal out of the Astrology mare Borealis Night, a halfsister to Grade 2-placed Kinsley Kisses and Grade 3-placed Spooky Woods.

Bernardini and Uncle Mo led the top of the marketplace that saw diversity both in the sire ranks and on the buying bench. There were 11 different sires represented by seven-figure horses this season, with threetime reigning leading sire Into Mischief the only stallion with two horses in the group. Freshman sires Bolt d’Oro, Triple Crown winner Justify, and Mendelssohn each recorded one seven-figure lot in their first juvenile sale season.

Aside from Zedan, no single owner landed more than one horse in the top 12. It was largely a domestic buying bench, although Japanese buyers Mitsu Nakauchida and Hideyuki Mori did appear in the top echelon.

Behind the Bernardini and Uncle Mo colts, the remaining seven-figure horses were:

◗ A $1.75 million Medaglia d’Oro colt, purchased by Red Baron’s Barn and Rancho Temescal at the OBS spring sale.

◗ A $1.7 million Tapit colt, purchased by Lane’s End Racing and West Point Thoroughbreds, with L.E.B., as agent, at the OBS spring sale.

◗ A $1.7 million Munnings filly, purchased by Larry Best’s OXO Equine at the OBS spring sale.

◗ A $1.3 million Mendelssohn colt, purchased by Nakauchida at the OBS spring sale.

◗ A $1.2 million Bolt d’Oro filly, purchased by Spendthrift Farm at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale.

◗ A $1.1 million Into Mischief colt, purchased by Mori at the OBS March sale.

◗ A $1.1 million Justify colt, purchased by bloodstock agent Jamie McCalmont, on behalf of Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier, at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale.

◗ A $1 million American Pharoah filly, purchased by bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, on behalf of Susan and Charles Chu’s Baoma Corp, at OBS March.

◗ A $1 million Into Mischief colt, purchased by Spendthrift, in partnership with the BSW/ Crow Colts Group, and with breeders Chester and Mary Broman coming back in for a share, at the OBS March sale.