'Superstar-in-making' $2.3m Uncle Mo colt tops opening day of OBS Spring Sale

Zedan Racing Stables went into battle during the first day of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, emerging victorious with a $2.3 million sale-topping colt by Uncle Mo.

Consigned as hip 206 by Top Line Sales, the colt worked impressively during the under tack show.

Agent Gary Young, alongside trainer Bob Baffert, bid on the colt for his client Amr Zedan, seeing off underbidder Coolmore, who stand Uncle Mo at their Ashford Stud near Lexington for an advertised fee of $160,000 for the 2022 season.

Young said: "He was a tremendous athlete; everything about his preview was good. When I went and saw him in the barn, he was very nice. Mr Zedan wants good colts running this time of the year.

"We did all right last year with Taiba, winner of the Runhappy Santa Anita Derby. We hope that we have some nice colts for next year's three-year-old races."

Bred in Kentucky by Corser Thoroughbreds and consigned to the 2021 Keeneland September Sale with Terrazas Thoroughbreds, Scott and Evan Dilworth picked up the pricey pinhook for $250,000.

Scott, on hand with his wife to watch the colt command attention in the ring, recalled what drew him to buy the son of Uncle Mo, then a yearling, out of Borealis Night, a half-sibling to Grade 2-placed Kinsley Kisses and Grade 3-placed Spooky Woods.

Borealis Night comes from the female family of Shivering Six, dam of a pair of stakes winners in Ever Elusive and Saratoga Summer.

"He walked out of the stall and I went, 'Wow,' and that was that," Dilworth said. "It's funny when we went and looked at him a ton of times — you know when you like one, you go back and look at them a few times — and I remember [Eduardo] Terrazas said, 'How come you are always smiling so big whenever you come and see this horse?' I said, 'He just makes me smile.'"

Jimbo Gladwell, who consigned the colt on behalf of the Dilworths, said: "He is a superstar in the making; I have to give all the credit to Scott. He twisted my arm to buy him. All we did was get him ready. He's easy [to work with] and is a smart colt. He has trained great every day of his life and he is going to the best trainer in the world.

"[Hip 206] acts like he could do anything," Young said. "He will probably get a month off at Barry Eisman's to unwind and then come out to join Bob's stable, and when [Baffert] gets back right before Del Mar, he will probably come in about then."

Young picked up another colt [hip 11] earlier in the day by Coolmore's Triple Crown winner Justify, paying $600,000 for the colt consigned by Hidden Brook.

The juvenile was a standout during the under tack show. He was bred in Kentucky by Bonne Chance Farm out of the Distorted Humor mare Unbound, a winner in Japan and stakes-placed in the 2014 Punkin Pie Stakes at Belmont Park.

The dam, who has already produced three winners, is a full-sister to stakes-placed winner Mary Rita and is from the family of 1988 champion older mare and 1996 broodmare of the year Personal Ensign, a $1.6m earner and producer of six Graded contenders.

The Justify colt's second dam, Possibility, is a half-sister to Grade 1 winners Miner's Mark, My Flag and Traditionally; Grade 1-placed Our Emblem; and Grade 2-placed Salute and Proud And True, a Grade 3-placed winner.

"I really like his attitude. He is a very chilled horse," Young said. "It seems like you could bring him home and sit him down at the dinner table, and he would be fine with that.

"He has a nice way of going, he had a nice work, and he didn't seem too rattled walking off the racetrack [following his breeze at the under tack preview]. It was about what we thought we'd have to pay for him.

"A friend of mine, Jamie Hill, who I respect a lot, watched this horse train all winter, and he said the colt was a very professional horse."

First-day figures

OBS reported 161 horses sold of the 212 on offer, for gross receipts of $22,149,000, an increase of 20 per cent from 2021. A median price of $75,000 was achieved, and an average of $137,571 was established. There were 51 horses who failed to meet their reserve, for an RNA rate of 24.1 per cent. These numbers may change due to post-sale reporting.

Last year on the first day of selling, 195 horses changed hands of the 225 on offer for total receipts of $18,427,900, at a median price of $50,000 and an average of $94,502. An RNA rate of 13 per cent represented the 30 horses that failed to meet their reserve. These figures include post-sale prices.

The top filly of the day marked a pinhooking score for Eddie Woods, who sold a daughter of Violence for $635,000 to Carolyn Wilson.

Situated inside the pavilion alongside trainer Larry Rivelli, Wilson was thrilled to take the striking youngster home. Consigned as hip 199, the Kentucky-bred filly is out of the Dixie Union mare Bold Union, a Grade 3 winner and producer of Bold Quality, third in the 2015 Pocahontas Stakes.

"I figured we would have to go this high; a couple of other guys jumped in late on her," trainer Larry Rivelli said. "She vetted perfect; she was flawless, which is hard to find."

"It's nice to be selling horses like this again," consignor Hal Hatch of Halcyon Hammock said of the overall market. "The market is strong. I've been here a long time and been through a lot of waves. It's nice to be back on the crest with the market the way it is now."

Four juveniles broke past $500,000 on the first day of selling, with only one breaking the seven-figure ceiling. This is the first time since 2017 that a horse sold for more than $2 at this sale; that was the year the record was set with a $2.45m Tiznow colt.

"[The] April [Sale] is a good sale," said pinhooker Scott Dilworth, who sourced the sale-topping colt. "I sold a filly here about ten years ago; Her name was Tanda. We topped the session at $145,000, and here you have a horse that brings $2.3 million, and [you see] how much this sale has grown. It's a phenomenal sale."

Young called the market spotty.

"If they bring the right horse in, you're getting paid, but if the horse has any flaws, if his preview was just so-so, or any conformation issues, then they are having trouble selling them," he said.

"I looked at the results earlier, and the buy-back rate was normal, about what you would expect. They aren't all going to be like the $2.3 million horse."

At the close of day one, Top Line Sales was the leading consignor, with ten horses sold for gross receipts of $2,953,000 at an average price of $295,300.

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