Love the pedigrees on both of those..........please keep us posted on the development. Best of luck!!

Thanks, Gate Dancer!

Our 2YO fillies have had their names registered:

1) MISTEVIOUS (Stephen Got Even)
2) BOSSY BETTY LOU (Street Boss)

They are in Florida training under Nick Caruso and he said they are doing great. Will be fun to watch them develop! I'll keep you guys posted.

My partner (Mark Polivka) wants to expand his racing stable and asked me to help him with a business plan. It's an exciting enough opportunity that I stepped back after 25 years as International Director at Blistex Inc. to spend more time doing it. (Note I will still do consulting work for Blistex).

My partner is bringing a teaser brochure to Dubai with him to see if anybody wants to help stake us and prove out the model.

He is part owner of Euro Charline and is going to watch her run. Ryan Moore on top.

Amazing series of events in a relatively short period of time. Exciting to be heading toward new horizons. I'm really fortunate I was in a position to do this when the opportunity came knocking. We'll see how it goes!

Cheers,

Otis

Breeze vs gallop
 

Curious what you auction experts think about the Adena offerings only galloping vs. breezing? Normal, significant ...?

Spent a little time in the sales barns Tuesday before auction. really like the Court Vision colt Hip #86

That is how they (Adena Springs) have always done it, dating back to when I first started going to 2 year old sales back in 2005. They never work their horses. They just gallop them. Adena Springs usually has a totally separate sale for their horses. It was unusual for these horses to be in this sale. They didn't belong in this sale. The Fasig Tipton Florida Sale is a boutique sale for select horses. I think this was kind of a one time experiment. I will be extremely surprised if Fasig Tipton allows the Adena Springs horses in the sale next year. For those horses to be in that sale was a travesty. It would be like allowing a couple of dozens golfers who can't break 100 to play in the US Open.

I doubt a single one of those Adena Springs horses could have gotten into that sale if they weren't owned by Stronach. My guess is that he made some type of deal with Fasig Tipton to allow those horses into the sale in exchange for him allowing the sale to be at Gulfstream. That is not to say that it isn't possible for one or two of those horses to turn out to be good horses. Mine That Bird was a $12,000 yearling and he won the Derby. So it would not be impossible for a couple of those horses to end up being good horses.

My partner has a pretty strong opinion that 2Yo's should not be fully exerted until they have the proper physical foundation, which is usually several months from now. So he was only looking at horses who were galloping.

Cheers,

Otis

Boutique sales are dead. FT is trying to compete with OBS by having horses for the "middle" market too and Frank is willing to supply them. The only Boutique sale left is Saratoga

It is much harder to select horses based on galloping than breezing.

While his hypothesis may or may not be correct, in the days where horses made more starts and had longer careers, they were already racing two year olds by this time of the year

Fasig Tipton has horses for the middle market at Timonium in May. That Florida sale is very hard to get into. They don't typically take horses that are going to to sell for $30,000. The average horse at that sale sold for $280,000 in 2014 and the median price was $180,000. In 2013 it was $385,000 and $300,000. We will see if they allow Frank's horses back next year. I doubt it. It cheapens the sale.

It's got to be easier then buying them as yearlings or weanlings. Somebody paid 3 million for a weenie how does that happen

The OBS March Sale is going on right now. One of the first year sires who is looking pretty good so far is Twirling Candy. He had a colt at the Barretts Sale sell for $400,000 and now he just had a colt at OBS sell for $500,000. He's got a few more in this sale who look really good too. I don't think he has a ton of 2 year olds this year either. I think he was only bred to around 70 mares in his first year, unlike Super Saver last year who was probably bred to around 120 mares in his first year.

I notice the Uncle Mo's have generally been selling well. How do they look to you?

It's a bit odd that his yearlings and 2yos have sold well, but his advertised stud fee has gone down.

I think they have looked pretty good so far. They've been selling pretty well and they have worked pretty well.

Sometimes with a first year sire there can be really high demand. Sometimes there is a buzz about a certain sire and a lot of people want to breed to them. I think that was the case with Uncle Mo. His stud fee was $35,000 and I think he was booked pretty full, if not totally full. His yearlings sold reasonably well but not incredible. At the Keeneland Sep Sale his yearling average was $106,000 and the median was $75,000. That is decent for a sire that stands for $35,000 but not incredible.

Super Saver's yearling numbers were more impressive. At Keeneland Sep, his yearling average was $105,000 and his median was $80,000. But his stud fee was only $17,500. That is a much better return on your money. Even with him, his stud fee didn't go up in 2014, not even after his two year olds worked and sold well at the first couple of 2 year old sales. It wasn't until 2015 that his stud fee went up to $35,000, and that is because his progeny won a couple of graded stakes races in 2014. In general, the horses have to produce on the track for the stud fee to go up. With Uncle Mo, his stud fee may not have gone down if his yearlings' median was $100,000-$120,000, but his median was only $75,000 and they looked pretty good, but not great. If his 2 year olds win some big races this year, you will see his stud fee go up in 2015.

OBS MARCH: 15 hips over $500k drive huge Day 1
 

Hip-Breeze-Sex Sire/Dam (Consignor/Buyer) Price

285-21.1-C Bernardini/Misty Hour (SGV Thoroughbreds-Steven Venosa, Agent/Live Oak Plantation) 1,400,000
34-20.4-C Midnight Lute/Circumstance (Eddie Woods, Agent/Donato Lanni, Agent) 900,000
12-9.4-C Smart Strike/Carolyn's Cat (Old South Farm LLC/M. V. Magnier & Stonestreet Stables) 800,000
139-9.4-F Bellamy Road/For Royalty (Northwest Stud, Agent/Solis & Litt) 800,000
239-21.4-C Tiznow/Lasting Appeal (Eddie Woods, Agent/Conquest Stables LLC) 800,000

155-9.3-F Scat Daddy Global Finance McKathan Bros., Agent III M. V. Magnier 750,000
33-21.2-F Congrats/Christie Village (Eddie Woods, Agent/C. F. Farms) 725,000
60-9.4-C Street Sense/Czechers (All In Sales-Tony Bowling, Agent/Mark Casse, Agent) 675,000
162-10.1-C Malibu Moon Goldilocks' Cat (Thomas and Casse, Agent/Mark Casse, Agent) 675,000
61-10.2-C Distorted Humor/Dance Quietly (Eddie Woods, Agent/Spendthrift Farm) 650,000

88-21.1-C Flatter/Dixie Crisp (de Meric Sales, Agent/White Horse Stables, Sheep Pond, Bridlewood Farm) 550,000
68-10.0-C Scat Daddy/Deadly Diva (Bobby Dodd, Agent/Rockingham Ranch, Peter Miller, Agent) 530,000
172-20.4-C Kitten's Joy/Granny Broughton (Eddie Woods, Agent/Conquest Stables LLC) 510,000
62-10.0-C Speightstown/Dance Swiftly (Hartley/DeRenzo, Agent/Live Oak Plantation) 500,000
170-10.1-C Twirling Candy/Gowestforgold (Eisaman Equine, Agent/Alex & JoAnn Lieblong) 500,000

Previewed sale with OBS' Tom Ventura and BH's Michael Compton and as upbeat as the atmosphere was going in, neither envisioned the kind of day posted Tuesday.

Charlotte Weber was the day's leading buyer spending nearly $2.5MM for a quartet of colts and joins me on ATR Thursday..

285-21.1-C Bernardini/Misty Hour $1,400,000
62-10.0-C Speightstown/Dance Swiftly $500,000
201-10.1-C Awesome Again/Im Out First $400,000
131 10.2 C Super Saver/Fly the Colors $180,000

Twirling Candy had 3 more horses sell. They went for $300,000, $630,000, and $310,000. I know that is a pretty small sample but those numbers are great.

What about the auspicious debut of Adios Charlie. Two sold for 600k...

Was a big buzz coming into the sale about what he's going to be as a stallion.