Radcliffe Lands $1.45 Million Gun Runner Colt at OBS

Kerri Radcliffe signed for a pair of top colts on behalf of Memo Racing on the second day of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale April 16, including the current sale topper, a Gun Runner colt consigned as Hip 601 from the immediate family of 2024 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) winner More Than Looks. The colt was bred in Kentucky by Capital Bloodstock, and consigned by S G V Thoroughbreds, agent. He is out of the Empire Maker mare Vanquished, making him a half brother to multiple graded stakes winner Takeover Target and to stakes-winning Ladies' Privilege, dam of More Than Looks. The bay colt breezed an eighth of a mile in :10 during the under tack show. "He's a Gun Runner, it's kind of hard to get away from that," Radcliffe said. "He breezed really well. Physically, he's lovely. He's going to take a bit more time, probably than the Nyquist (Hip 378). But, we came here to buy nice colts, we got two." The colts were bought for Memo Racing, a partnership that is American-based, although they do have a filly in the United Kingdom. A trainer has not yet been decided. Radcliffe said they will look to add more to their stable, and plan on attending the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale and Arqana Breeze Up Sale in France. "We're doing colts and fillies," she said. "It just so happened that the colts were here. I've seen a lot of fillies that are going to Maryland, and also that are going to Arqana in France that have American pedigrees." "You never know," S G V Thoroughbreds' Steven Venosa said on the price of the colt. "Anytime you lead one up here, I mean a horse with a stallion's pedigree and a Breeders' Cup horse under the first dam, he came up here, did everything he needed to do on the racetrack, showed well all week. I have a great team behind me that was able to help me get him here." Radcliffe also went to $1.05 million for Hip 378, a colt by Nyquist from the Harris Training Center consignment. The Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings-bred colt was bought as a yearling for $135,000 at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton October Yearling Sale by HTC Voric Stables. By 2015 champion 2-year-old colt and 2016 Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Nyquist, Hip 378 is the fourth foal of the Distorted Humor mare Saucy Dame. He breezed an eighth of a mile in :10 during the second day of the under tack show April 7. Nyquist added another graded stakes winner to his list last weekend when Gosger took the Lexington Stakes (G3) at Keeneland for Harvey A. Clarke Racing Stables and trainer Brendan Walsh. "He was just gorgeous," Radcliffe said. "Pure class by a great stallion in Nyquist, out of a Distorted Humor mare, bred by Stonestreet, which doesn't get much better than that. As they say, he ticked all the boxes." Hip 378 is the highest-priced 2-year-old Robbie Harris has ever sold. "I sold one for $1 million back when Calder had 2-year-old sales," Harris said. "I topped the sale here (2012 OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale) for Claiborne (Farm)—I break all of Claiborne's babies—that was maybe 10 years ago for $800,000, a War Front colt. "He (Hip 378) was just a man amongst boys at my farm. I break over 100 head every year, and you knew where he was at any time on the track. I'm wishing them the best of luck, and I'll be the biggest fan. People were telling me, there's a lot of chatter about him, he's one of the top-end colts. I'm so glad it worked out."