SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 2019 OBS JUNE SALE ENDS COMPETITIVE CAST ASSEMBLED FOR FOSTER by Brian DiDonato WITH A BANG A diverse group of 12 older males line up Saturday night for the GII Stephen Foster S. at Churchill Downs, which carries a “Win and You’re In” ticket to the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic. The race likely goes through Hronis Racing’s Gift Box (Twirling Candy), who invades from California off a trio of stellar outings since changing hands. Sold privately and transferred from Chad Brown to John Sadler off an 8 3/4-length Aqueduct optional claiming romp last March, he resurfaced to defeat the star- crossed Battle of Midway (Smart Strike) in the GII San Antonio S. at Santa Anita on the day after Christmas. He upended another formidable foe in MGISW McKinzie (Street Sense) to take the GI Santa Anita H. by a nose Apr. 6, but was upset himself by Vino Rosso (Curlin) in the GI Gold Cup at Santa Anita May 27. Despite the defeat, he earned a career-best 105 Beyer for that last effort--a repeat of that number seems very likely to get the job done here. Cont. p9 IN TDN EUROPE TODAY Sale-topping and record-setting hip 748 | Tibor & Judit Photo LAVERY’S INTUITION PAVES WAY TO SUCCESS by Jessica Martini Trainer Sheila Lavery is regrouping after the tragic loss of her stable star Lady Kaya this week. Lavery sends 2-year-old filly Lil Grey to Royal Ascot next week. OCALA, FL - The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s June Sale of 2- Click or tap here to go straight to TDN Europe. Year-Olds in Training concluded with a bang Friday in Ocala, as a filly by Into Mischief brought a sales record final bid of $900,000 from Larry Best’s OXO Equine. The juvenile was consigned by Top Line Sales on behalf of Carlo Vaccarezza. The price bettered the auction’s previous record of $800,000, which was set by a City Zip colt in 2016. “We are happy with the results of the sale, we set a record for the highest-priced horse and we increased our gross,” OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski said. “The June sale has evolved. This isn’t your father’s June sale. I think it bodes well for OBS as a whole and that consignors can have confidence that, no matter what sale they bring their horse to, they’ll have the opportunity to get what it’s worth.” Through three sessions, OBS sold 609 juveniles for a gross of $21,493,300. The average of $35,293 rose 8.6% from 2018 and the median was up 13.3% to $17,000. During the 2018 June sale, 530 head grossed $17,231,000 for an average of $32,511 and a median of $15,000. Cont. p3 PUBLISHER & CEO Sue Morris Finley @suefinley [email protected] V.P., INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS Gary King @garykingTDN [email protected] EDITORIAL [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Jessica Martini @JessMartiniTDN Managing Editor Saturday, June 15, 2019 Alan Carasso @EquinealTDN Senior Editor Steve Sherack @SteveSherackTDN Racing Editor Brian DiDonato @BDiDonatoTDN News and Features Editor Ben Massam @BMassamTDN Associate Editors Christie DeBernardis @CDeBernardisTDN Joe Bianca @JBiancaTDN ADVERTISING [email protected] Director of Advertising Alycia Borer Advertising Manager Lia Best Advertising Designer Amanda Crelin Advertising Assistants Alexa Reisfield Amie Morosco Advertising Assistant/Dir. Of Distribution Rachel McCaffrey Photographer/Photo Editor California invader Gift Box (Twirling Candy) schools in the Churchill Downs paddock Sarah K. Andrew @SarahKAndrew Friday ahead of an appearance in Saturday night's GII Stephen Foster S. | Coady [email protected] Social Media Strategist WILL 9F MAKE THE DIFFERENCE FOR ELATE? 10 Justina Severni Accomplished ‘TDN Rising Star' Elate (Medaglia d'Oro) gets a bit Director of Customer Service more ground to work with as she resurfaces in Churchill's nine-panel, Vicki Forbes GI Breeders' Cup Distaff-qualifying GII Fleur de Lis H. [email protected] Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen @AlaynaCullen OMAHA BEACH UPDATE 11 Omaha Beach (War Front), the would-be favorite for the Director of Information Technology GI Kentucky Derby if not for an entrapped epiglottis, has Ray Villa [email protected] made it back to his Southern California home base. Bookkeeper TODAY’S GRADED STAKES Terry May [email protected] EST Race Click for TV 8:03p Matt Winn S.-GIII, CD TJCIS PPs TVG WORLDWIDE INFORMATION 8:37p Wise Dan S.-GII, CD TJCIS PPs TVG International Editor 9:12p Fleur de Lis H.-GII, CD TJCIS PPs TVG/NBC Sports Kelsey Riley @kelseynrileyTDN [email protected] 9:47p Stephen Foster H.-GII, CD TJCIS PPs TVG/NBC Sports European Editor 10:19p Regret S.-GIII, CD TJCIS PPs TVG Emma Berry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson @HLAndersonTDN Newmarket Bureau, Cafe Racing Sean Cronin & Tom Frary [email protected] 60 Broad Street, Suite 100 Red Bank, NJ 07701 732-747-8060 | 732-747-8955 (fax) www.TheTDN.com TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 3 OF 13 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • JUNE 15, 2019 OBSJUN cont. The performances of June graduates on the racetrack have encouraged buyers to shop the auction with confidence and successful transactions in the ring have emboldened consignors to target the sale with their late-developing juveniles, according to OBS President Tom Ventura. “We’ve had [GI Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile winner] Goldencents and [Grade I winner] Celestine and Stormy Liberal, a two-time Breeders’ Cup winner, come out of the June sale, so the sale has made huge strides,” Ventura said. “People come here thinking they can find something of any quality. And now we’ve had a horse that sold for $900,000, who three months ago was in our sale and didn’t bring $400,000 in March, was bought back, and that horse blossomed and people were rewarded for it. I think we’ve gotten past that stigma a while ago of it being the last sale of the year. I think the consignors just put the horses where they are ready to go and sometimes it’s the second time through, but more often we are seeing the first-time horses going through the sale. I think that’s certainly the direction this sale has been going.” With 160 horses reported not sold, the cumulative buy-back rate was 20.8%. At the 2018 sale, the buy-back rate at close of business was 21.8% and that figure fell to 20.3% with the addition of post-sale transactions. “It was evident that there was a lot of activity for the moderately priced horses,” said Ventura. “In comparing the buy- back rate, right at this moment, it’s a little difficult, although we’re pretty much on par. As we keep adding post-sales, I think it will be very comparable to last year.” Ventura also saw the demand for horses right through to the end of the 1,059 catalogued head. “Just being out back in the last 25 or 30 hips, there were still people scrambling to buy horses,” Ventura said. “So it wasn’t like we were finishing in an empty building. So that was good to see.” Wavertree Stables was the auction’s leading consignor with 19 sold for $1,465,000 and OXO Equine, with its sole, sale- topping purchase, was the leading buyer. Bloodstock agent David Ingordo saw plenty of positive trends at the June sale and attributed some increased activity at the lower middle end of the market to the New York Racing Association’s recent unveiling of a series of races restricted to 2-year-olds purchased for $45,000 or less. “I like to buy a few for myself at a little bit of a cheaper level and take a shot,” Ingordo said. “I’ve found it hard for a decent lower-priced horse in the $50,000 to $100,000. They were hard to buy. With what Saratoga did with the $45,000 purchase price or under, there is a lot of activity here with people trying to buy those horses. So you see a lot of people stopping at $45,000. It’s competitive here for decent horses.” Cont. p4 TDN HEADLINE NEWS • PAGE 4 OF 13 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • JUNE 15, 2019 OBSJUN cont. Ingordo also observed a difference in what buyers and sellers think of as “middle market horses.” “Something that should be said about the ‘middle market’-- there is a price that we want to buy horses at. It’s a value that you give them, but they still have to jump through the hoops. They have to vet cleanly and have a good physical. There are a lot of people who want to buy horses in what we call the middle OBS JUNE SALE – FRIDAY’S TOP LOTS market. What the buyers want them to bring and what we as sellers want them to bring are different things. And sometimes HIP SEX SIRE | DAM PRICE ($) when you make those match, you get a high clearance rate.” 748 filly Into Mischief--Rosemonde 900,000 ($375,000 yrl ‘18 FTSAUG; $400,000 RNA 2yo ‘19 OBSMAR) Breeder: H. Allen Poindexter (Ky) Consignor: Top Line Sales LLC, Agent II Purchaser: OXO Equine LLC 914 filly Ghostzapper--Tizahit 600,000 ($67,000 yrl ‘18 KEESEP) Breeder: Blue Devil Racing Stable (Ky) Consignor: Gayle Woods, agent for Eric A. Delvalle Purchaser: Donato Lanni, Agent for Stetson Racing LLC 782 colt Into Mischief--Sea Level Drive 325,000 ($165,000 yrl ‘18 KEEJAN; $285,000 yrl ‘18 KEESEP; $375,000 RNA 2yo ‘19 FTFMAR) Breeder: Green Lantern Stables (Ky) Consignor Halcyon Hammock Farm, Agent II David Ingordo | Photos by Z Purchaser: Nick J Hines, Agent for Howg/BG Stable/Big Tufff 721 filly Kitten’s Joy--Reachfortheheavens 290,000 But consignor Eddie Woods continued to see a weakness in the Breeder: Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey (Ky) middle market and he found buyers more reluctant to buy Consignor: Eddie Woods, Agent LXVIII horses with issues during the season’s last juvenile sale.