With his first crop of 2-year-olds poised to hit the track in 2021, Practical Joke and his progeny have already begun to make an impression on horsemen. That hope for a bright future on the track has recently manifested in the sales ring, with buyers stretching their budgets for foals by the Ashford Stud stallion as they ramp up for a new season of sales.
Demand for short yearlings by Practical Joke produced the consignor preferred session topper Jan. 26 at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Winter Mixed Sale opening day.
"(Practical Joke) has been pretty popular all along because he's thrown just good-looking babies, but the thing here in Ocala is that a lot of people have them, but he's the buzz when you talk to the training centers," said Francis Vanlangendonck of Summerfield Sales. "When you ask, 'Who do you like?' They always say, 'Oh these Practical Jokes can run.' So there is a lot of buzz on the horse and that caused a lot of people to come look at them. Not only does it look like they're going to run but they are acting like they can run right now."
The highest seller of the session was Hip 182, a colt by the stallion and the first foal out of the Uncle Mo mare Mobeautiful. Bred in Kentucky by Hartley/De Renzo Thoroughbreds, the bay was purchased on Tuesday for $130,000 by Ronald Clark Shepherd from the Summerfield consignment.
"He's an obvious horse," said Vanlangendonck. "He's a typical Practical Joke. He's really good-looking, he has plenty of leg, and he's correct. He's out of an Uncle Mo mare and had a little bit of Uncle Mo in him and all the right people with good eyes were on him. To my knowledge he was bought to race. He has a pretty good mind on him and he's just a nice colt."
The colt was among the select short yearlings labeled as part of the consignor preferred horses that encompassed the first 183 horses through the ring. Vanlangendonck said the price was well above the reserve set for the colt, but was extremely close to his overall expectations.
"We thought he'd bring a little north of $100,000," said Vanlangendonck. "They were happy. The horse was put in to raise cash and they didn't really want to sell him, but it was one they could use to pay stud fees and some things like that so it worked out."
