Arrogate Colt Lights Up at $1.45M During Day 1 at OBS

On the day it was announced that the late Arrogate has been elected to the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, a colt (Hip 253) from the final crop of the brilliant champion summoned a final bid of $1.45 million from Donato Lanni, agent for Amr Zedan's Zedan Racing Stable. The April 25 purchase topped the first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.

Lanni, standing alongside trainer Bob Baffert during the spirited round of bidding, signed the ticket. Bred in Kentucky by Rosedown Racing Stables and produced from the unraced War Front   mare Destine , the bay colt is half brother to multiple stakes-placed Sunset Promise  and is from the immediate family of champion sprinter Smoke Glacken , as well as graded-stakes winners Smokey Glacken  and Crown of Thorns .

"It's ironic because today they announced Arrogate is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, so it's fitting that we found a horse that resembles his stature, his look," Lanni said. "The only difference is he is a different color.

"Bob (Baffert) loved the horse. He loved him as soon as he saw him. We were fortunate to get him. The good ones are always going to bring more than you think, and we loved everything about him. They aren't making any more of them."

Consigned by Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds, agent, the colt demonstrated his speed and athleticism breezing an eighth in :10 at the under tack preview.

"It's a homebred for our client, Rosedown Racing Stables," Randy Hartley said moments after the hammer fell. "He has two mares, and this mare (Destine) is a special one. This colt has been awesome from the get-go. He's been a machine at the farm. He's one of those horses you don't notice because he's so quiet, and he does everything correctly. I knew he would breeze well because he was such a good horse at the farm, but you never know when you get here on the synthetic track because we train at home on the dirt. I had four horses to breeze that day and I took him up there last because I knew he would do it."

With Fasig-Tipton's The Gulfstream Sale being shelved this year, Ocala-based Hartley/DeRenzo targeted the OBS Spring Sale with their precocious colt.

"I feel like the April sale has become the sale now," Hartley said. "It's easy for people to come here, which I get. It's in our backyard. It's harder being here because I have the farm and the sale, and I have to focus on what's in front of me. OBS has done a great job of getting the right people here, people who are confident buying here. Even though the (under tack) times are really fast, I think the buyers still land on the horses they need to buy."

Judging by the lengthy round of bidding, the colt had plenty of admirers, including Hartley, who knows him as well as anyone.

"When this colt showed up at the farm, I couldn't figure out why they didn't sell him as a yearling, but I'm glad we got to sell him," Hartley said. "He was a big horse, and for a big horse, he's light on his feet. I like big horses with tactical speed because he can get up in a race where he needs to be, and this horse, you will be able to put anywhere."