Bolt d'Oro brings two highest prices among freshman sires at OBS March juvenile sale

As freshman sires put their first representatives on the track at breeze-up sales and spring race meetings, Bolt d’Oro was the first to strike. The young Spendthrift Farm resident recorded the two highest prices for a freshman sire at the season opener, the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale of 2-year-olds in training, with his offerings attracting international attention.

A Bolt d’Oro colt sold for $900,000 to Hideyuki Mori to rank as the fifth-highest price of the entire sale, behind four seven-figure horses by established sires. Another Bolt d’Oro colt sold for $600,000 to Kaleem Shah, tied for the seventh-highest price. Both colts were consigned by Top Line Sales, as agent, and both had breezed a furlong in 9 4/5 seconds on the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack surface during the under-tack preview, among a large group tied for the second-fastest time.

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Mori’s purchase, a Kentucky-bred half-brother to stakes winner Foolish Humor, is from the immediate family of multiple Grade 1 winner and successful sire Get Stormy.

Shah’s colt, a Florida-bred, is from the family of champion juvenile Halfbridled. Grade 1 winner Mshawish also appears on the catalog page.

Bolt d’Oro, by Medaglia d’Oro, was a multiple Grade 1 winner as a juvenile, taking the Del Mar Futurity and FrontRunner Stakes. That precocity has been rewarded in the commercial arena. Led by a $1.4 million half-brother to Rachel Alexandra at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga selected yearling sale, he averaged $145,757 from his 105 first-crop yearlings sold in 2021, more than five times his introductory stud fee of $25,000. He is now averaging $287,467 from 15 juveniles sold.

The other freshman sires to break the half-million mark at OBS March were champion West Coast (Lane’s End Farm), with a $570,000 colt to Carolyn Wilson and a $525,000 filly to Maverick Racing and Siena Farm; Preakness winner Cloud Computing with a $560,000 colt to West Point and Talla Racing; and Mendelssohn with a $525,000 filly to Gracie Bloodstock.

In addition to his Bolt d’Oro colt, Shah purchased the $1.2 million More Than Ready colt who led the entire auction. The colt, a half-brother to stakes-placed Broad Approval, is from the extended family of champion Rushing Fall, also by More Than Ready.

Three-time reigning leading sire Into Mischief recorded two seven-figure lots, including a colt sold for $1.1 million to Mori, who made seven purchases overall. Into Mischief also had a $1 million colt purchased in partnership by the BSW/Crow Colts Group, a group purchasing colts intended for trainer Brad Cox and a major player at the yearling sales last year. Others involved in the purchase of the $1 million colt were Spendthrift, which stands his sire, and Chester and Mary Broman, who bred the colt in New York. Rounding out the quartet of seven-figure horses was a $1 million filly by Triple Crown winner and leading young sire American Pharoah, purchased by bloodstock agent Donato Lanni on behalf of Baoma Corp.

Overall, OBS reported 375 juveniles sold at the season opener for a gross of $49,656,000. The sale’s cumulative average price was $132,416, jumping 13 percent from 2021. The median, a key figure in indicating market strength, spiked 25 percent, to $75,000 from $60,000. The buyback rate checked in at 13 percent compared to a cumulative 16 percent last year.