Corniche colt tops first day of OBS March sale
It was at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s complex that Corniche took his first strides toward a championship season. At the same facility, Corniche took his first strides in this year's freshman sire race. A colt from his first crop sold for $1.35 million to top the first day of the OBS March 2-year-olds in training sale, the first sale of this season.
OBS reported 144 horses sold on Tuesday, the first of three sessions at the March sale, for gross receipts of $23,149,500. In last year's corresponding opener, 133 horses sold for $17,235,500. The session's average price was $160,760, jumping 24 percent from $129,590 a year ago. The median was up 20 percent to $90,000 from $75,000. The buyback rate was 29 percent, compared to 22 percent last year.
Corniche, by Quality Road, sold for $1.5 million to Speedway Stables at the 2021 OBS April sale and went on to win all three of his starts that year, with Grade 1 triumphs in the American Pharoah Stakes and Breeders' Cup Juvenile to lock up a divisional Eclipse Award. The colt from his first crop who topped Tuesday's session was purchased by representatives of Legion Bloodstock from the consignment of Pick View LLC as agent.
“I have two [by the stallion] and they’re both awesome," Pick View's Joe Pickerrell said. "They love to train, they’re sound, and they seem to thrive off the work. Everything we’ve thrown at [this colt], he’s taken it in stride. He’s never had a bad day. I feel like he’s a horse who is going to have some big things coming.”
The colt, a May foal, breezed a quarter-mile in 21 seconds flat during last week's under-tack preview show on the Ocala Training Center's all-weather Safetrack. He is out of the Grand Slam mare Leigh Court, a champion in Canada. The four-time graded stakes winner is the dam of four winners from five starters to date.
Two other juveniles, one by an established sire and one by another member of this freshman class, fetched seven figures on Tuesday.
A Nyquist colt sold for $1.2 million to MorPlay Racing and Marquee Bloodstock from the consignment of Wavertree Stables as agent. The colt had breezed a furlong, the traditional under-tack preview distance, in 9 4/5 seconds last week, among several to tie at that time behind six juveniles who worked the bullet 9 3/5 seconds.
The Nyquist colt is out of Argentinian champion La Extrana Dama.
Later in the session, a New York-bred colt from the first crop of Drain the Clock sold for $1.1 million to Pedro Lanz as agent for KAS Stables. The colt, who also breezed in 9 4/5, was consigned by de Meric Sales as agent.
Grade 1 winner Drain the Clock could be poised to continue with a major sale after several of his first-crop offspring distinguished themselves during the under-tack preview show.
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