OBS Championship Stakes Fields Set

The four Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s Day of Champions races that will be run Jan. 24, one day prior to the sales company’s winter mixed sale, have drawn 40 entrants.

The races restricted to 3-year-olds that have gone through the ring at an OBS sale are the $100,000 OBS Championship Stakes for colts and geldings at 1 1/16 miles, the $100,000 OBS Championship Stakes for fillies at 1 1/16 miles, the $50,000 OBS Sprint for colts and geldings at six furlongs, and the $50,000 OBS Sprint for fillies at six furlongs.

OBS, which conducts racing under a Quarter Horse racing license, will also card seven races on the program for that breed.

Included among the nine colts or geldings entered in the Championship Stakes are stakes-placed Master Plan, Shiraz, and Sailing Home.

Trained by Todd Pletcher, Master Plan is a 3-year-old son of Twirling Candy   who made his first two starts on turf, breaking his maiden at second asking. In his third and most recent start, the colt bred in Kentucky by Ernest Frohboese was a late-closing second in Gulfstream Park’s Pulpit Stakes at a mile over a sloppy track.

Master Plan races for the partnership of Al Shaqab Racing, WinStar, and China Horse Club, which went to $850,000 to purchase him out of the 2016 OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training. The colt represented a major pinhooking score for Eisaman Equine, which purchased Master Plan for $70,000 from Romans Racing & Sales at the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale.

Trained by Mike Maker, Shiraz is the leading earner in the field, with $72,060 gleaned from a win and two placings in five starts, all on turf. The Tale of the Cat   colt bred in New York by Lambholm broke his maiden at Belmont Park in his third start in October. In the Dania Beach Stakes (G3T) at 7 1/2 furlongs over Gulfstream’s turf course, Shiraz was checked early and then swung out for a late run to finish third.

Owner Three Diamonds Farm purchased Shiraz for $105,000 from Wavertree Stables at last year’s March sale.

Sailing Home is a Mast Track colt who zipped six furlongs in 1:09.77 over Woodbine’s synthetic surface en route to a 9 3/4-length romp in his debut before a troubled third-place effort in the Swynford Stakes, also at Woodbine. Trained by Mark Casse, Sailing Home was bred in Ontario by Andy Stronach and purchased by owner Conrad Farms for $30,000 from the Bobby Jones Equine and Santa Fe Thoroughbreds consignment at the 2016 OBS June sale of 2-year-olds in training.

The highest earner on the Championship card is Dennis Farkas’ Fun, one of 11 fillies entered in the $100,000 fillies division. The 3-year-old Harlan's Holiday miss broke her maiden at 17-1 odds in her debut and has competed only in graded stakes in her four subsequent starts. Trained by Ian Wilkes, Fun finished second in the Schuylerville Stakes (G3) and fourth in the grade 1 Spinaway before running third in the Darley Alcibiades (G1). Bred in Kentucky by Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds, Fun has gone unsold in two trips through the sales ring and was a $95,000 buyback at the 2016 OBS March sale.

Bourbon Lane Stable’s Paz the Bourbon is a daughter of Mission Impazible   trained by Mark Hennig. The filly bred in New York by Sequel Thoroughbreds and Twin Creeks Farm has two wins, both on grass, from seven starts, with a bankroll of $110,479. Included among her three placings is a third in Belmont’s Lynbrook Stakes.

Consigned by Sequel to last year’s March juvenile sale, Paz the Bourbon was sold to McMahon & Hill Bloodstock for $150,000.