OBS Spring Sale

]The word was out when the Chad Brown-trainee Opulent Restraint (Dubawi {Ire}) made her first career start on July 28 at Saratoga. She was sent off as the 7-10 favorite but couldn't come through. She finished fourth, beaten 1 1/4 lengths. On Sunday at Saratoga she made amends. Sent off this time at 3-2, she won a stretch battle with Good Long Cry (Long On Value) to win the mile-and-a-sixteenth turf maiden by a half-length. "She has shown ability from day one and Chad liked her a lot," wining rider...

GISW Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo-Borealis Night, by Astrology), has been retired from racing and will stand at Hill 'n' Dale, according to a farm release Monday. Sold for $250,000 at the 2021 Keeneland September Sale, the Corser Thoroughbreds bred colt brought a sale-topping $2.3 million from Zedan Racing at the OBS Spring Sale the following season. "He showed his brilliance from day one of the 2YO sale where he was a man amongst boys. We knew he was special from the moment we saw him. He has what I love...

Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), who rallied from last to finish second behind Fierceness (City of Light) in the GII Jim Dandy Stakes Saturday, will continue on to the Aug. 24 GI DraftKings Travers Stakes, trainer Chad Brown confirmed Sunday. "I thought he ran great. He put in a really good performance," Brown said of his charge's Jim Dandy effort. "He's come out of it well, so we'll move forward and point to the Travers. We're looking forward to getting back out to a mile and a quarter." Sierra Leone won...

In a debut befitting his princely price tag, Parenting (c, 3, Justify--Iadorakid, by Lemon Drop Kid) kicked away from a well-met group of maidens at Santa Anita Park, and became the newest 'TDN Rising Star' to hail from the Bob Baffert barn. Hugging the rail after coming out a narrow leader via a scramble for the front, Parenting rolled into the lead off of :22.42 and :45.48 splits, and had put away most of his early competition by midstretch. Shaking loose under hand-urging, Parenting found enough in the tank to...

by Jessica Martini & Stefanie Grimm OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training rushed across the finish line with a lively session of bidding Friday and concluded its four-day run in Central Florida with a new sales record average and median and a gross just off last year's highwater mark. "It certainly felt like it picked up here at the end of the four-day stretch," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "It felt good. We were bumping up against a record [gross...

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company launched an action-packed week of under-tack shows ahead of its Spring 2-year-olds in Training Sale, which will run from Apr. 16 through Apr. 19. A total of eight juveniles--half fillies and half colts--led the way Sunday morning with joint :9 4/5 moves. WinStar's freshman sire Improbable was the only sire to be represented by a pair of session-topping workers--Hip 131, a colt out of I Know That Mom (Distorted Humor) (S G V Thoroughbreds LLC), and Hip 133, a colt out of MSW and MGSP...

"It's a really difficult thing, to let go of something that you've spent your whole life building," acknowledges Nick de Meric. "I don't know if 'letting go' is quite the right way to put it. But to actually cut that umbilical cord, it's a leap of faith." The Ocala horseman, who reflected on a colorful past in yesterday's TDN, now turns his attention to the future. For the evolution of a successor program, parallel to his own, makes the de Meric family a particularly pertinent case study for our series...

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...

Pierre Jean Amestoy Jr. has never been to the Kentucky Derby. Not even as a spectator. However, the 2023 renewal may very well change that fact after Practical Move (Practical Joke), who he owns in partnership with his wife Leslie and Roger Beasley, stamped himself a major Classic contender with a victory in last weekend's GII San Felipe S. at Santa Anita. "My wife and I were very emotional after the win," said Pierre Amestoy. "It was phenomenal. It was exhilarating. We're just elated." "I guess we're heading to the...

He has yet to run this year, which has turned GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Corniche (Quality Road) into the forgotten horse in the 3-year-old male division. That, however, may be about to change. Corniche has had two recent works at WinStar Farm and, according to Marette Farrell, an advisor to owners K.C. Weiner and Peter Fluor, the colt will return to the racetrack within a couple of weeks. "His last work at WinStar [four furlongs in :48.94 last Saturday], they said that it was an 'A' work," Farrell said....

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis OCALA, FL - With a pair of seven-figure colts leading the way, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds produced a day of strong bidding Wednesday in Florida. During the session, 177 juveniles grossed $25,829,000 for an average of $145,927 and a median of $80,000. Through two sessions, 347 horses have sold for $48,388,000. The two-day average of $139,447 jumped 36% from last year's corresponding figure, while the median of $75,000 soared up 50%. The cumulative buy-back rate is 19.5%. With the...

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training kicks off a four-day run Tuesday with sessions beginning at 10:30 a.m. daily. The sale comes on the back of a very strong OBS March Sale where 378 juveniles summoned $49.941 million, including four seven-figure sellers. "The March Sale was very good," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. "There was a lot of activity at all levels in March and we anticipate that strength to carry over into April." There was a high level of activity on the...