Northern Farm Lands $675,000 Half Sister to Drefong

Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm went to $675,000 to purchase a Candy Ride  half sister to the Japanese-based stallion Drefong during the March 12 first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

Consigned as Hip 147 by Top Line Sales, agent for Carlo Vaccarezza, the filly was bred in Kentucky by Machmer Hall, Carrie Brogden, and Craig Brogden, and was purchased for $300,000 by Vaccarezza out of the Keeneland September yearling sale. Eltimass, the unraced Ghostzapper  mare who is the dam of the pricey filly and of champion sprinter and multiple grade 1 winner Drefong, is a half sister to champion and sire Action This Day. After aborting the Into Mischief  foal she was carrying in 2018, the mare foaled a Curlin  colt Feb. 18.

Drefong went undefeated in four starts in 2016, taking the Ketel One King's Bishop Stakes (G1) and the TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) en route to being named champion sprinter. In 2017 he added to his grade 1 tally when he won the Forego Stakes (G1) before being retired with a 6-0-0 record from nine starts with earnings of $1,538,385. He stands at Shadai Stallion Station in Hokkaido.

Northern Farm's Yasuhiro Matsumoto said the filly's relation to Drefong initially attracted their attention, and her eighth-mile workout in :10 during the pre-sale under tack show sealed the deal.

"We looked at the black type (catalog) page and saw Drefong was on it and we said 'why not.' She's really good," Matsumoto said. "Her walk was very nice. Her form (in the workout) was very good."

The filly is among a group of horses Top Line has entered in this year's 2-year-old sales on behalf of Vaccarezza, the prominent Florida owner, breeder, and trainer. Among Vaccarezza's previously purchased OBS entrants are Hip 346, an Uncle Mo  filly named Wisely to Fair from the family of multiple grade 1 winner Wekiva Springs purchased for $410,000, and Hip 440, a daughter of Into Mischief out of a half sister to grade 2 winner Miss Mischief—also by Into Mischief—purchased for $375,000. Both sell March 13 during the sale's second session.

"When you start out with a good product, it makes my life easier, and Carlo bought some nice horses," Top Line's Jimbo Gladwell said. "He bought all of them. He bought yearlings by the 'right' sires. All I've done is take it from there and try to do my best to get them to this point."