A 2-year-old El Prado (IRE) colt named El Kingdom sold for $450,000 on Wednesday to top the 2009 March OBS juvenile sale.
The colt out of the Dynaformer mare Rabiadella was listed as hip No. 383 and was bought by Eddie Plesa Jr. as agent for South Florida resident Steve Weizcholz.
“I liked this horse, and Mr. Weizcholz stepped up to the plate and bought him,” Plesa said. “There is nothing not to like about him. He’s not a typical El Prado. He worked faster than he’s supposed to work. He comes from a great background from Eisaman Equine, who handled him the whole time.
“He kind of reminds me of LeBron James. He looks like a horse that can pass for a horse older than he is. To me, he is the LeBron James of the sale. Hopefully, we’ll be able to say that a year from now.”
Plesa thought the horse would be the sales topper.
“The market is not as good if you are a seller, but it affords buyers the opportunity to get horses at a bit of a discounted price. I think two or three years ago, he would have brought more money,” he said.
Rabiadella was purchased in foal to the colt at the 2006 Keeneland November sale for $85,000.
“He always was a very level-headed, sound, wonderful mover,” said Barry Eisaman, who operates Eisaman Equine with wife, Shari. “He displayed a real burst of speed here. We never really asked him until here (at the under-track preview). We didn’t expect him to sell that high. We always fantasize about it when you have a really nice horse, but no, we didn’t expect it.”
The colt worked a quarter-mile in 20.4, just a tick slower than the fastest quarter-mile time of 20.3.
The Eisamans still own the mare. She is in foal to Songandaprayer and has a yearling by Badge of Silver.
Another colt, this one by Tiznow and listed as hip No. 401, brought $410,000 from John Moynihan for Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables LLC.
Consigned by Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds, the colt is out of the West by West mare Reverence.
“Mr. Jackson owns Tiz Wonderful. He looks like it was a really top Tiznow. Dean and Randy loved him, and he moves beautifully on the racetrack,” Moynihan said.
Hip No. 381, an Unbridled’s Song colt out of the Deputy Minister mare Queen of Spirit, was bought for $375,000 by Silverton Hills, LLC, with Tommy Hamilton signing the ticket.
“He’s got a good pedigree, and his body looked good,” Hamilton said.
The colt was consigned by Eddie Woods.
The top-selling filly was hip No. 286, who sold for $185,000. The Candy Ride (ARG) filly out of Marine Band was bought by Patrice Miller, EQB Inc. as agent. She was consigned by Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree Stables.
An Indian Charlie filly topped the first session of the OBS sale Tuesday, bringing a winning bid of $425,000.
The filly, out the Tactical Cat mare Hollywood and Wine, was bought by Moynihan for Jackson’s Grace Stable.
“We thought she was the best filly in the sale,” Moynihan said. “We love the stallion, and she is a really great, physical filly. She’s the one we liked the most. We are primarily buying colts, but we thought we would take a chance on her. I thought the price was a lot for her, but (for) the good ones, you have to spend the money.”
The filly, hip No. 212, was consigned by locally based Jerry Bailey Sales. Gulf Coast Farm bought the filly for $200,000 at the 2008 Keeneland September sale.
The top-selling colt of the first session was by Grand Slam and brought a winning bid of $400,000 from Moynihan, again representing Jackson for Stonestreet Stables.
The colt, out of the Dixieland Band mare Cosmic Wish, was listed as hip No. 112 and worked a quarter-mile in 20.3 in the under-tack show. The bidding started fast but settled in as Moynihan and Buzz Chace traded bids in $5,000 increments.
“He was a great-looking horse and moved well on the racetrack,” Moynihan said.
“When I saw the $5,000 bids, I said, ‘That must be Chace.’ We didn’t think he would go for that much. I was about to stop, but we’re glad we got him.”
Chace, who was bidding for West Point Thoroughbreds, also suspected Moynihan was bidding against him.
“Who got it? Moynihan?” he asked as he walked to the back of the sales pavilion. The two were bidding in different areas and couldn’t see each other.
“He was a nice horse,” Chace said. “I stopped bidding for a while, but then Terry (Finley) gave me a look, and I jumped back in.”
The horse was consigned by Off The Hook LLC.
“His breeze was very impressive,” said Joe Appelbaum, one of the principals in Off The Hook. “Not only was he fast, but he did it in an easy, controlled manner. The horse has a wonderful stride, and he’s just a nicely balanced colt. If you look at his pedigree and conformation, you can see he’s going to have some flexibility surface-wise.
Off The Hook bought the colt for $80,000 at the 2008 Keeneland September sale.
The second-highest-selling filly in the Tuesday session was hip No. 174, who sold for $360,000. The Florida-bred Macho Uno filly out of the Touch Gold mare Forbidden Kiss was bought by Gabriel Duigan for a partnership between Elite Racing and Silverton Hill.
The filly was consigned by Woods and posted the co-fastest eighth-mile breeze at 9.3.
“She is a wonderful, precocious filly,” Woods said. “She’s a good summer filly. She’s the kind that could go to Saratoga and win a stake. She’s very correct, vetted really well and was sound. I was very pleased by the price. I thought she would sell for $250,000 or maybe a little more. With the market the way it is, I was thrilled that she went as high as she did.”
The filly was bred by Adena Springs and purchased as a yearling for $160,000 at the Fasig-Tipton August sale by McMahon Bloodstock, agent.
For the session, there were 115 head sold for $11,080,000, compared to last year’s record-setting mark of $15,734,500. The average was down to $93,348 from $143,041.
“It was down off of last year’s record, but the sale was still pretty competitive for the top horses,” said Tom Ventura, OBS general manager and director of sales.
