Upstart

The three-day under-tack show ahead of next week's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale kicked off Wednesday under picture perfect conditions with temperatures hovering in the low 70s as the first of seven sets hit the track shortly after 8 a.m. Originally scheduled for May, the breeze show attracted a good-sized crowd to the Maryland State Fairgrounds, with bloodstock agents such as Liz Crow, Patti Miller, David Ingordo, Donato Lanni, Gary Young, Tom McGreevy, Steve Young, Gary Contessa, Joe Brocklebank and Alan Quartucci in attendance, as well as trainers like...

The sales ring can be a formidable place for any first-crop sire. Add in a global pandemic, with side effects of low sales attendance and a free-falling stock market, and a positive outcome for the stallion might seem futile. But this year, the first crop of Airdrie Stud's Upstart must not have gotten the message. They were the hot commodities at the OBS March Sale, the only 2-year-old sale to finish before the sales season was forced to grind to a halt. Six Upstart 2-year-olds brought the hammer down during...

Even if most racing is delayed, we're all hoping it will get underway sometime this spring or early summer, if for no other reason than so we can all find out the answer to our annual favorite question. We surveyed some top judges on who their leading first-crop sire is, and to give us some under-the-radar picks as well. I want to disclose my opinion by saying that most of it is based on the two-year-olds I have seen this past week at the OBS sale. Most of my clients...

by Steve Sherack & Brian DiDonato With the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipping below 20,000 as the stock market continues to plummet, it was no surprise that the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale concluded its two-day run with sharp, across-the-board decreases as the COVID-19 outbreak continues to wreak havoc throughout the world. This year's two-day sale grossed $27,902,500, good for an average of $95,885 (-34%), a median of $50,000 (-38%) and an RNA rate of 40%. The 2019 auction, held under dramatically different circumstances, grossed $44,422,500,...

Bloodstock agent Mike Ryan went to $600,000 to secure a colt from the first crop of multiple graded stakes winner Upstart (Flatter) during Wednesday's second session of the OBS March sale. The bay colt is out of Blue Beryl (Bernstein), a half-sister to multiple graded placed Brigand (Flatter). He was consigned by Woodford Thoroughbreds, which purchased him for $220,000 at the 2019 Keeneland September sale. The colt is the sixth six-figure juvenile for Upstart at the two-day March sale.

Through the first three installments of this series, we've repeatedly complained about ever-more manic investment in unproven stallions and the resulting potential for chronic deterioration in the gene pool. So we won't reprise the theme today, other than to remark that this situation creates a rather more immediate and specific challenge for the next group under review. Because while second- and third-season stallions can still offer breeders the possibility of riding an early vogue, this lot have just been exposed to the judgment of the yearling market--which history reveals to...