Creative Cause Filly's Sale Emotional for Koch

After scoring a big pinhook profit on a Creative Cause   filly that sold for $850,000 during the April 28 final session of Ocala Breeders' Sales spring sale of 2-year-olds in training, Billy Koch became emotional discussing the effort required to get a horse to that point.

The filly, bred in Kentucky by Brereton and Bret Jones, was acquired in the name of Koch's Solana Beach Sales partnership entity for $100,000 from the Jones/Airdrie Stud consignment to the Keeneland September yearling sale. She was consigned to OBS by Tom McCrocklin, agent.

"It just means so much to us for buyers to respect the job Tom does," said Koch, who is also founder and a managing partner in Little Red Feather Racing, as he choked back tears. "It's tough sometimes when you're selling on the last day. The whole team works so hard."

Trainer Linda Rice signed the ticket for the filly, who breezed a quarter-mile in :21 during the under tack show workouts, on behalf of Kaitar Racing.

"She's a big scopey filly, with size and a good shoulder," Rice said of her latest sale acquisition. "She worked in :21 flat, she galloped out terrific, she looks like a two-turn filly with speed, and had great presentation at the barn."

"She looked like a queen. She didn't turn a hair the entire sale," the California-based Koch said. "She's an absolutely stunning filly and the horsemen who came by to see her couldn't fault her. That speaks volumes of Tom's ability to pick horses as yearlings and have the vision to see what they might look like six months later."

Koch said the group had no expectations of how much the filly might bring.

"We knew we had a really nice horse, but you can never get too excited and we kind of stay level-headed," Koch said. "It was scary. My heart was pounding and I shed some tears."

McCrocklin said the filly had "a beautiful breeze and good vet work. She was a beautiful yearling and easy to break. She did it all herself. My job was just to not screw it up. A lot of good buyers liked her and they just got in there and competed."

Sired by Airdrie's Creative Cause, who stands for $15,000 and is represented by two stakes winners this year, the filly is out of the stakes-winning El Prado mare Santina Dond, and from the female family of grade 1 winner Well Armed and grade 2 winner Zivo  .