Dodd's Tiznow Colt Attracts Attention at OBS

Bobby Dodd has been pinhooking—buying young horses to re-sell—since 1980 and has consistently been among the country's top 2-year-olds in training sales consignors.

But his recent alliance with Texas horseman Brad Grady has taken Dodd’s program to a whole new level of prominence, and the partners are on a roll.

Girvin, a Tale of Ekati   colt the pair bought as a yearling for $130,000 under the name of Grady’s Grand Oaks, is on the Road to the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) for Grady and trainer Joe Sharp. Irap, a Tiznow   colt they bought privately for $100,000 and then sold to agent Dennis O’Neill, is also Derby-bound for Reddam Racing after a stunning upset victory in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2).

Now, Dodd’s consignment at the Ocala Breeders' Sales spring sale includes another striking son of Tiznow that is one of the buzz horses of the auction that began April 25. Consigned as Hip 793 by Dodd as agent, the colt turned heads of observers when he breezed an eighth-mile in :09 3/5, co-fastest time during the pre-sale under tack show workouts.

"We knew he was pretty nice," Grady said. "He prepped really good. He's real pretty and he moves good. He is a big, strong horse with a big hip."

Not only is the colt fast, he also descends from a stellar female family. His second dam is multiple stakes winner Storm Beauty, a Storm Cat half sister to champion sprinter Gold Beauty, who has produced grade 3 winner Buffum, multiple stakes winner and grade 2-placed Stormy West, and graded stakes-placed Renaissance Lady.

“I think he is another Girvin,” Dodd said, noting that the colt’s breeze time was a tick faster than the Derby contender’s :09 4/5 when he prepped for the 2016 OBS spring sale. Two days after the workout, Girvin injured himself when he stepped on his right rear pastern and was lame.

Unable to send the colt through the ring at OBS, Dodd and Grady considered sending him to the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale, where he would stand out.

“I told Brad he would sell good there, but that he still wasn’t 100%,” Dodd recalled. “He (Grady) said we bought him to sell, but we don’t want to take a horse to a sale that is not 100%.”

Girvin was turned out and, as Dodd said, “the rest is history.”

Dodd, an affable and hard-working horseman, said his alliance with Grady has enabled his pinhooking operation to up its ante.

"Getting hooked up with the Grady family has allowed me to buy better horses and that’s why this is all beginning to jell,” Dodd said.