Niall Brennan

OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's June Sale of 2-Year-Olds opened with a workmanlike session Tuesday as four horses sold for over $200,000, led by a filly by Bolt d'Oro who attracted a final bid of $290,000 from bloodstock agent Donato Lanni, acting on behalf of Greg and Caroline Bentley. In all, 184 sold Tuesday for a gross of $7,107,500. The average of $38,628 slipped 2.4% from last year's opening session, but the median of $25,500 was up 27.5% from the 2021 sales record-tying figure of $20,000. With...

The fifth session of the under-tack show for next week's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, suspended just under three hours by heavy rain, produced a pair of :9 4/5 bullet breezers, while two juveniles shared the fastest quarter-mile time of :21 flat Thursday in Central Florida. First to hit the bullet time of :9 4/5 once action resumed around noon Thursday at OBS was a daughter of Cairo Prince (hip 839) out of the unraced Nippy (Pulpit). The gray filly is a half-sister to graded...

George Sharp, who made high-price horses of racing age purchases last year, will be in action as a seller at Wednesday's Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale of Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training where he will offer two juveniles. The pair is part of a group of 12 yearlings he purchased at last year's Keeneland September sale. "I took a shot last year that, if I bought enough yearlings, maybe I could sell a few of them to pay for the rest," Sharp explained. While he is reoffering horses he bought just last fall,...

On the opening day of the OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, just 7 1/2 weeks ahead of the First Saturday in May, buyers will have a chance to purchase the half-siblings to a pair of GI Kentucky Derby contenders. The first of the two to go through the ring Mar. 15 will be an Always Dreaming half-brother to GII Risen Star S. winner Epicenter (Not This Time). Consigned by Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables as Hip 121, the bay is out of stakes winner and GSP Silent Candy (Candy Ride...

Nobody has missed the explosive impact of Not This Time's second crop of sophomores on the Classic trail this year. But the fact remains that it's actually another stallion in his own intake that we find flirting most plausibly with an elusive distinction, with a chance of joining King Alfonso (1885), McGee (1918), Bull Lea (1952) and Native Dancer (1966) in siring the winners of both the GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Oaks. Okay, so we're getting way ahead of ourselves here. With nearly two months to go, it...

   Justify, City of Light, Mendelssohn, Good Magic and Bolt d'Oro all received glowing reviews by various consignors in parts one and two of our 'Thoughts from Ocala' series. Logically enough, this select group of freshman sires holds the top five stud fees amongst their stallion crop in the U.S., each standing for $20,000 or more in 2022. While 'value' and 'freshman sires' are two terms rarely used in the same sentence in this industry, as buyers can surely attest, we asked consignors to point out a few first-crop sires...

With the start of the 2-year-old in training sales just around the corner, a visit to Ocala proved to be informative as we checked in with consignors who are going through the fine-tuning process with their sales horses. Leading up to the OBS March Sale, we will release a series of video features covering the topics everyone is talking about as the sales season approaches. Watch our first episode on first-season sires with Eddie Woods, Nick de Meric and Susan Montanye here. In this edition, we spoke with Niall Brennan,...

The Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation (TRF) will host a worldwide livestream event Thursday, October 21 at 8 p.m. ET, celebrating the transformative power of horses through the TRF Lowell 20th Anniversary Horse Show. The virtual event will bring viewers inside the horse farm at the Lowell facility and provide an opportunity to experience the connection between the horses and the women currently participating in the program. The Lowell Horse Show will also shine a spotlight on several women who have successfully graduated from the program and gone on to brighter futures...

Niall Brennan is riding high heading into this week's Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale as this year, a pair of his program's graduates have developed into two of the hottest colts in training early on in the season. Just last weekend, Godolphin's 'TDN Rising Star' Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper) was much the best in the G1 Dubai World Cup and trainer Mike Stidham said after the race that the 4-year-old colt is just going to get better. Meanwhile, another Godolphin homebred in Eclipse Champion Essential Quality (Tapit) looks to maintain his undefeated career...

by Brian DiDonato & Katie Ritz Regally bred 3-year-old filly Trapezium (Hard Spun) (hip 26) topped Keeneland's first-ever digital auction, the Select Horses of Racing Age sale, Tuesday on a winning bid of $327,000 from Vinnie Viola's St. Elias Stables. A Gulfstream maiden special weight runner-up in February, the granddaughter of blue hen Toussaud was consigned by her owner/breeder, Juddmonte Farms, Inc. The Juddmonte draft was responsible for four or the sale's top five lots at the close of trade. "The successful launch of the Digital Sales Ring marks a...

While the pause button was hit on the juvenile sales season following the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale, the youngsters destined for auction rings this spring have an expanding body of works on their resumes as consignors make plans and contingency plans ahead of the delayed OBS Spring sale. The Spring sale, originally slated for Apr. 21 through 24 and now expected to run from June 9 through 12, features a catalogue of 1,231 juveniles, a handful of whom had published works at Central Florida training centers Tuesday. Based...

A short yearling by Union Rags topped Tuesday's consignor preferred session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Winter Mixed Sale when selling for $165,000 to the Blue Sky Stables pinhooking partnership led by Brian Graves. The dark bay colt (hip 4) was consigned by Pelican State Thoroughbreds as agent for breeder David Fennelly's Mountmellick Farm. The yearling, out of La Milanesa (Mr. Greeley), is a half-brother to stakes winner Ginger N Rye (More Than Ready). His second dam, multiple Grade I placed Hometown Queen (Pleasant Colony), produced graded stakes winner...