Into Mischief colt sets the pace at Ocala

A speedy son of Into Mischief stole the spotlight at the record-setting Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training during the waning hours of the auction April 26, bringing a sale-topping $1,300,00 (£1,006,420/€1,164,500) bid from Team Casse.

Consigned as lot 1165 by De Meric Sales, the colt was the picture of perfect demeanour throughout the protracted bidding war that was won by agent Justin Casse on behalf of an undisclosed client.

"I don't know if any animal is flawless, but he is very close to it," Casse said. "He's very well balanced, a great walker, and had a phenomenal (workout) time. I had to have him. He was my pick of the sale, and it just worked out that he was at the end. I think we've been underbidders five times more than we've gotten anything. "

Bred in Kentucky by Jim and Pam Robinson's Brandywine Farm, the colt is the third foal out of the unraced Fusaichi Pegasus mare Dixie Song, a half sister to the the dam of multiple Grade 1 winner By The Moon.

"You have speed on the top side and distance on the bottom side, so we loved the whole combination," Casse said of the colt's breeding.

After the colt worked a quarter-mile in :21 during the under tack show, his team clocked gallop out times of :32 1/5 for three-eighths of a mile and :45 for a half-mile.

"These are performance-based sales, and he did exactly what he was asked to do," Casse said.

Casse said the new owner's identity would be known soon enough, adding, "Hopefully you will be talking about the horse a year from now" in reference to the 2020 classics.

Acting on behalf of a group of partners, de Meric purchased the colt for $300,000 from Taylor Made Sales Agency at The Saratoga Sale, Fasig-Tipton's selected yearling sale in New York, reflecting a step up in price for horses to be resold in response to market demands.

"We knew we needed some top offerings for this year," said Tristan de Meric. "With the polarity in the market, we wanted to be in the top 10 per cent of the sales, and I feel like we did a good job of rounding up the right ones, and we've been rewarded. We rounded up some new partners this year, and that gave us the confidence to go out and spend more. We are so thankful for them. They roll with the punches when it's not going right, and all share in the fun when it's up."

Comparing the colt to Practical Joke, a son of Into Mischief who won two Grade 1 stakes as a two-year-old, including the Hopeful, De Meric said he could make it to the races soon.

"He is similar to Practical Joke in a lot of ways," he said. "He's a precocious type of horse and looks like one who could go out there and win the Hopeful. He's a really nice horse, and you could go on with him. He could be any kind. We've liked him from day one. We had high hopes from the beginning."

"He was just so balanced and athletic," Nick de Meric said of Spendthrift Farm's Into Mischief. "That sire has been good to us. I just put six Into Mischief horses on a van to (trainer) Chad Brown we bought as weanlings and trained. We're big fans of this amazing young sire."

View full Spring Sale results

Boosted by three seven-figure horses, the OBS sale exceeded last year's record venue in all key statistical categories.

From 1,221 cataloged, 840 horses went through the ring, with 675 selling for record gross receipts of $73,287,000, up 6.9 per cent over the $68,541,500 figure in 2018. This year's record average of $108,573 reflected a 10.6 per cent increase over the $98,197 average a year ago, and the median was a record $60,000, up 9.1 per cent over last year's $55,000 median. The RNA rate was 19.6 per cent.

OBS president Tom Ventura said the April sale's upward spiral, setting new standards every year, is a reflection of sale graduates on the track, fuelling buyer and seller confidence.

"The consignors have complete confidence in this sale, and they bring top quality," he said. "It has proven itself out not only in the ring but on the racetrack, which is more important than what they bring in the ring, in my opinion, because they have to perform and keeps buyers coming back and get new buyers interested."

"The horses showed up," he added. "The buying bench was very deep, and competition for the top horses for the most part wasn't just two buyers. It was multiple buyers that got in very deep."

While some consignors said the sale continued to reflect the polarisation in which there is nearly unfettered demand for the horses deemed to have the best chance of future success, Nick de Meric said the family's consignment found success at all levels.

"It's been good from top to bottom," he said. "We led some cheap horses through there and were getting new zip codes (buyer addresses) for them. If you have a market this deep where you can sell a $10,000 horse and a $1,300,000 horse and everything in between, you really can't complain about it. As always, the key is pricing them right. You've got to know what you're leading in there. OBS has done a great job putting together a stellar group of horses."

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