Colorado owner Ed Orr prevailed in a bidding war to buy a strapping bay son of Munnings that was at the top of a lot of buyers' short lists. The $700,000 colt (Hip 955) was the most expensive horse the owner said he's ever paid for a horse.
"I wasn't nervous but certainly excited" Orr said. "He was the one we were most interested in today."
Offered at OBS by Randy Miles as agent, the colt had been bought for $100,000 by DBH through the Bluegrass Thoroughbred Services consignment at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale. The colt worked in :10 during the under tack show.
Carlos S.E. Moore and Gillian Gordon Moore bred the colt in Virginia out of the winning Siphon mare Senate Caucus. Helping boost the colt's value is his third dam, Ruby Slippers, who is the dam of Tap Your Heels, the dam of top sire Tapit . Orr said he didn't buy the horse with an eye on the stallion market, however.
"The pedigree is secondary to me because I'm really in it for the thrill of the race and the challenge of that," Orr said. "We have had good fortune in a lot of our business ventures and this has turned out to be more challenging than any of those business ventures ever were."
Orr is cattleman, real estate farm broker, land developer, and had at one time been involved in the oil and gas business. He has 10-15 horses in training with Jerry Hollendorfer and Ian Wilkes.
Trainer Steve Asmussen was the underbidder on the colt and disappointed he didn't get him. When Orr found out how much Asmussen liked the colt, a deal was quickly made to send the horse to the Hall of Fame trainer.
"I was hoping to get to train him, got outbid, and then I was approached afterward. I'm fortunate to now get to do so," said Asmussen, who said he'll send the colt to Keeneland. "He is big, strong, and fast, everything that seems to be pretty effective in a horse race."