Thoughts from Ocala Part 2: Freshman 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, Ciaran Dunne and Jimbo Gladwell about the freshman sires whose 2-year-olds have impressed them most throughout the breaking and training process, and we asked them to show us a few of those sires' most promising progeny that we will see at the sales in the coming weeks.

NIALL BRENNAN

With first-year sires, obviously some years you might have several by one stallion and nothing by another, so it can be a little hard to compare, but we do have several by Mendelssohn this year and so far I'm really impressed with them. They were a really consistent group as yearlings and I think that's what impressed people. They're very professional and focused on the racetrack and they're good movers across the board. Most of them are average-sized and they're very athletic. I think he's got a great shot.

I've got one Mendelssohn filly in the OBS March Sale [Hip 125] that is a very nice filly. She's out of a Candy Ride (Arg) mare and is a half-sister to Simplification (Not This Time), who won the Mucho Macho Man S. She's professional with a great pedigree.

We also have several Justifys and again, so far I'm quite impressed with them. Many of them were bigger as yearlings so you figured that they might take a little longer as he was later-developing, but I've got a couple that have been very forward in their training.

We have two Justify colts going to the OBS March Sale. The one colt [Hip 476] is out of a Silver Deputy mare who has already thrown a 2-year-old stakes winner. He is good-sized, strong and balanced. He has given me the impression that he's very quick. The other colt [Hip 501] is actually a half-brother to MGSW Toinette (Scat Daddy), who was a good stakes filly on the grass. He's got a huge stride, but he really covers the ground and is deceivingly quick because he just is so easy over the ground. These colts are a little different, but they're both forward mentally and physically.

I've got a couple of other Justify fillies that are going to go to the April sale. They're bigger, growthier types like him. They're May foals so we just picked the later sale to give them a little more time, but again, I've been quite impressed with how forward they seem to be

We only have one Bolt d'Oro this year, but he's a very impressive colt going to OBS March [Hip 84]. He's mature, very powerful and a great mover on the racetrack. He's out of a Fastnet Rock (Aus) mare, so it's mostly an Australian pedigree which is a great cross. If I had to judge Bolt d'Oro by this one colt, I'm impressed because this colt is very serious.

CIARAN DUNNE: Wavertree Stables

We only have a small sampling of Justifys, but we're really high on the colt out of Appealing Zophie (Successful Appeal) who is going to Gulfstream [Hip 84]. He trains as well a horse can train. If he's a true reflection of what the rest of them are like, I think Justify is in for a big year.

As a group, the Good Magics we have are probably the most solid. We have quite a few of those; I think we have five or six of them. The colt out of Rose Mine (Street Cry {Ire}) who goes to OBS March [Hip 82] is probably one of our highlights. He's a big, strong colt with a super way of going. The thing about the Good Magics is that you forget how good of a 2-year-old he was and these guys have really shown a lot of speed.

City of Light was the hot commodity at the yearling sales. They're very quick and precocious for a horse who was later developing himself. We have a couple of fillies by him that we're high on. The Redbud (Union Rags) filly goes to OBS March [Hip 59] and we have a filly out of Naples Mist (Medaglia d'Oro) going to Gulfstream [Hip 41]. We have high expectations for both of those.

Top Line's Bolt d'Oro colt out of Foolish Cause (Giant's Causeway) sells at the OBS March Sale | Tiborphoto

We probably have as many Bolt d'Oros as we have of any of the first-season stallions. We have a really good sampling going to OBS March. The colt out of Roman Bluff (Roman Ruler) [Hip 81] might just be our fastest horse going in there based on how he has acted at home. We have a filly out of Moment of Speight (Ire) (Speightstown) [Hip 625] who has a beautifully-deep female family. She's more of a two-turn type of filly, but she acts like she's got speed too. Across the board, I think they've got a lot of quality and a future going two turns.

JIMBO GLADWELL: Top Line Sales

We have two Bolt d'Oro colts going to OBS March. I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say both of them are going to go 10 flat or faster. They're both fast, good-moving colts and they're very aggressive in their training. They want to do it so bad. They are two of the faster colts I've got going over there and we're very happy with the Bolt d'Oros right now. We're actually bringing a mare back to him this year.