The under tack show for the Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale wrapped up March 8 with 15 juveniles breezing an eighth in under :10, including a Gun Runner colt that blazed a furlong in :09 3/5. Two works in :20 2/5 led the quarter-mile breezers on the third and final day of the under tack show.
The Gun Runner colt consigned as Hip 654 led the eighth-mile workers with his speedy :09 3/5 work, one of only two horses to hit that mark in the OBS March under tack works after a Caracaro filly did so the previous day. Bred by PTK in Kentucky out of the winning Liam's Map mare Tynan, the gray/roan colt is a close relation to graded winner and Walmac Farm stallion Pappacap , who is also by Three Chimneys Farms' leading sire. The dam is also a half sibling to grade 3 winner Boppy O.
Consigned to the OBS March sale by Eddie Woods, Hip 654 was purchased for $200,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale by St. Clair Stables from the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment.
"He's a nice horse. He's always been very straightforward," Woods said. "He stepped right up and did his job today. He's very well made, he's very balanced-looking, and he's a Gun Runner. They just run."
Fourteen juveniles posted one-furlong works in :09 4/5, including a full brother to 2020 champion turf female Rushing Fall (Hip 757) from the final crop of More Than Ready, and a Maxfield half sister to grade 1 winner Hard Aces (Hip 721).
A pair of workers covered a quarter-mile in :20 2/5 Saturday, tying for the fastest quarter in the sale. From the first crop of Hill 'n' Dale Farms' Charlatan , the filly consigned as Hip 601 is offered by the Hartley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds consignment. Out of the winning, grade 1-placed Broken Vow mare Sweet Shirley Mae, the Kentucky-bred was purchased by Hartley/DeRenzo at the Keeneland September sale for $350,000. Breeze Easy bred the half sister to stakes winner Mae Never No (No Nay Never).
The other :20 2/5 worker Saturday was an Arkansas-bred filly consigned as Hip 619 by Halcyon Hammock Farm. By Red River Farms' Aurelius Maximus, the Bill McDowell-bred filly is out of stakes-winning Valid Expectations mare Thievery. She is already an OBS sale graduate, having been bought for $15,000 at the 2024 OBS Winter Mixed Sale as a short yearling by Fast Bird Equine. She was consigned to that sale by Perrone Sales on behalf of her breeder.
Five juveniles breezed a quarter-mile in :20 3/5, and another three covered the distance in :20 4/5.
The OBS March Sale runs March 11-13, with a start time of 11 a.m. ET each day. Hips 1-272 are slated to go through the ring Tuesday.
