$1.2 Million Broken Vow Colt Tops OBS Session

An attractive Broken Vow   colt owned by a partnership group headed by Billy Koch of Little Red Father Racing Club was sold for $1.2 million April 21 to top the penultimate session of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s April spring 2-year-olds in training sale.

Breeze Easy Stable, a relative newcomer to horse racing, went to $1.2 million to acquire the Broken Vow colt, who is the highest-priced horse through the first three days of the sale. 

The colt was purchased by Parkersburg, W.Va.-based Breeze Easy Stable from the consignment of Tom McCrocklin on behalf of Solano Beach Sales, a partnership group headed by Koch. Bred in Florida by Hal Snowden Jr., the colt produced from the stakes-winning Silver Deputy mare Haddie Be Good had been purchased for $105,000 from Taylor Made Sales Agency at last year’s Keeneland September yearling sale.

“He’s a well built horse and he breezed wonderful,” Breeze Easy’s Michael T. Hall said of the colt’s quarter-mile move in :20 4/5. “Everything this horse has done has been wonderful.”

Hall said Breeze Easy has been organized for only three months and has seven horses in the stable. He said the colt will be sent to trainer Troy Wismer at Woodbine and then a decision will be made on where he goes from there.

“It’s an unbelievable feeling and very gratifying,” McCrocklin said, adding that the Solano Beach partnership needed a lift. “Solano Beach had very mediocre results up to this point so it made it good for everybody.”

OBS reported 156 horses sold Thursday for gross receipts of $13,816,500, down 11% from the corresponding session a year ago when 173 horses grossed $15,489,000 on the third day. The average of $88,567 was only down slightly from the $89,532 figure a year ago and the median rose 11% from $45,000 to $50,000. The buyback rate was 28%.

For the three sessions, 484 head have grossed $37,769,500, a 4% decline from the $39,420,900 total for 514 last year. The cumulative average of $78,036 is up 2% from $76,794 and the median is unchanged at $45,000. The three-session RNA rate is 26%.

Thursday’s second-highest price of $875,000 was paid by Dennis O’Neill, on behalf of Paul Reddam, for a ridgling by Candy Ride   from the Niall Brennan Stables consignment.

O’Neill previously bought Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum Brands! (gr. I) winner I'll Have Another and undefeated champion Nyquist, favorite for this year’s Derby, on behalf of Reddam. Nyquist, who like I’ll Have Another is trained by O’Neill’s brother Doug, was purchased for $400,000 from Brennan’s consignment to the 2015 Fasig-Tipton March sale.

“We’re getting addicted to this Kentucky Derby Trail and this is the one we thought would get us there next year,” O’Neill said. "He's the spitting image of Nyquist. He’s an absolutely gorgeous horse. I have a type I like and I hate to use the cliché that he’s athletic, but he’s just a lean, athletic horse. He is such a classy, classy animal.”

Saying he knew “all the heavy hitters” were bidding on the horse, O’Neill said he thought he would have to go to $1 million to acquire him.

Brennan said he was glad of the new home for the ridgling and hopes he can replicate Nyquist’s brilliance.

“I hope he can be as good as Nyquist, but he has big shoes to fill,” Brennan said, adding that the April sale was chosen as the proper venue for the ridgling because he was a big, growthy horse who need extra time. “He’s a big, strong colt who stands a lot of ground and he’s got a great disposition.”

The ridgling is out of the grade III-winning Wild Rush mare Fencelineneighbor. He was bred in Kentucky by Gainesway Thoroughbreds and was purchased by Valera Stable for $280,000 at the Keeneland September yearling acquisition.

The session’s third-highest price of $420,000 was paid by agent Steven Young for Hip 843, a filly from the first crop of The Factor   produced from the stakes-winning Allen’s Prospect mare Friona.

Consigned by Eddie Woods, agent, the filly had gone through the sales ring twice, most recently acquired by Quarter Pole Enterprises for $140,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale. As a weanling, the filly was bought by Walter Bloodstock for $75,000 at the 2014 Keeneland November auction.

“She’s got a lot of leg underneath her and I think she should get two turns,” Young said. “For my tastes, she was the best filly in the sale. She brought what I thought she would, although since she’s by a first-year sire I was hoping she wasn’t as popular as she was.”

The OBS sale concludes Friday, with a session beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT.