Amr Zedan

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - For the third straight day, the team of Bob Baffert and Donato Lanni, acting on behalf of Saudi businessman Amr Zedan, made the highest bid of the session, this time going to $2.2 million--top price of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training sale so far--to acquire a colt by Gun Runner from the de Meric Sales consignment as the Spring sale continued to produce figures largely in line with its record-setting 2022 renewal. Through three of four...

Well into Thursday's third session of the OBS Spring Sale, several of racing's biggest names were out in force to duke it out for a juvenile colt by Horse of the Year Gun Runner. With several separate interests clashing, including agent Donato Lanni, accompanied by Bob Baffert, and trainer Steve Asmussen, the trainer of Gun Runner, it was Amr Zedan's team that outlasted the rest to land the colt for a cool $2.2 million. Offered as Hip 782, the Mar. 20 foal is out of Perfect Wife (Majesticperfection), the dam...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL-The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training reached its halfway mark Wednesday with a familiar name at the top of the sheets as Amr Zedan paid a session-topping $900,000 for a son of Frosted as figures kept largely on par with the auction's record-setting 2022 renewal. Through two sessions of the four-day auction, 351 juveniles have sold for $45,886,000. The average is down 6.3% from the end-of-day figure from a year ago and the median is down 6.7% to...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training opened Tuesday with a session that produced figures nearly identical to the auction's 2022 opening session. "It was a good start to the sale," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "A lot of horses sold very well. And I'd like to think the strength will continue through the next three days. I feel pretty good about that. There are a lot of good horses left to sell." During Tuesday's...

A colt by champion Arrogate lit up the board with a $1.45 million final bid late in the opening session of the OBS Spring Sale in Ocala. Signing the ticket on Hip 253 was agent Donato Lanni, accompanied by Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, also the trainer of the deceased champion. Purchased on behalf of Amr Zedan, the colt breezed an eighth in :10 flat last Monday. Consigned by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds LLC, the juvenile is out of unraced Destine (War Front), the dam of SP Sunset Promise (Broken Vow)....

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis OCALA, FL-The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, which had four million-dollar juveniles a year ago, has matched that mark with another day to go as a colt by Good Magic topped Tuesday's trade with a sale co-record final price of $2 million. Bob Baffert, sitting in the press box alongside Donato Lanni while on the phone with Amr Zedan, made the winning bid, which matched the $2-million price tag of Chestertown (Tapit), who sold at the auction in 2019. "It...

A colt by Good Magic, who worked a co-bullet furlong in :9 3/5 last week, lit up the sales ring at OBS Tuesday when selling to Amr Zedan for $2 million. Trainer Bob Baffert was on the phone with Zedan, while bloodstock agent Donato Lanni handled the bidding from the press box. The juvenile was consigned by Torie and Jimbo Gladwell's Top Line Sales. The Gladwell family purchased him for $190,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

The nominees for the Mar. 4 GIII Gotham S. at Aqueduct include four horses that have been under the care of Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert, but were nominated under the names of new trainers. Baffert is banned from running in this year's GI Kentucky Derby and any horse under the care of a trainer suspended by Churchill Downs must be moved to a new barn by Feb. 28 in order to earn Derby qualifying points. On Friday, a U.S. District Judge ruled against Baffert as he sought a...

Saudi businessman Amr Zedan has been an owner only since 2017, but in that short period of time he has more than made his mark on the sport. His Medina Spirit (Protonico) crossed the wire first in the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby, his Taiba (Gun Runner) won three Grade I races last year and he has what may be this year's hottest 3-year-old colt in GIII Southwest S. winner Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo). We found out more about Zedan and his racing operation on this week's Thoroughbred Daily News Writers'...

Amr Zedan joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to discuss his talented Kentucky Derby hopeful, the recent GIII Southwest S. winner Arabian Knight.

Bob Baffert has certainly taken his lumps ever since it was discovered that Medina Spirit (Protonico) tested positive for a banned substance in the 2021 GI Kentucky Derby. He was hit with a 90-day suspension from the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission, the New York Racing Association banned him for a year and Churchill Downs banned him for two years. Though Baffert is still fighting the Churchill ban, in all likelihood, he will not be allowed to start a horse in this year's Derby, which would be the second straight year...

Sergio Leone's 1966 masterpiece, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," was the last and best of a trilogy of Leone spaghetti westerns that upended the traditional genre. Before Leone and other Italian directors like Sergio Corbucci set about redefining the Old West in Europe, traditional domestic westerns featured clean-cut leads like John Wayne, Alan Ladd, Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, and Jimmy Stewart in films by directors like John Ford and Howard Hawks that clearly delineated the good from the bad and ugly. Not so Leone, who made the genre...