Gun Runner Colt Tops Record Day of OBS Sale at $1.45M

Kerri Radcliffe signed for a pair of top colts on behalf of Memo Racing on the second day of a record-breaking Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training 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," Radcliffe 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. "It's hard to hide a good horse, and he's a great horse." 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 male 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. "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." "He (Hip 378) was just a man amongst boys at my farm," Robbie Harris said. "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." Day 2 Statistics Day 2 of the OBS Spring sale ended with fireworks—the current sale topper (Hip 601) and a record of seven horses to sell for $1 million or more, with two days left to go. The previous record for OBS Spring was five seven-figure horses, set in 2022. "Wow, great day," OBS director of sales Tod Wojciechowski said. "I said before the sale started that I'm always amazed how the consignors continually up the quality of the horses they bring, and I think that was evidenced today by having six horses bring a million or more." A total of 164 horses changed hands for $26,128,500, including post-ring sales. The average was $159,320, with a median of $67,500. Forty-three horses failed to meet their reserve for a 20.8% RNA rate. Last year's second session saw 177 horses bring $25,894,500, with an average of $146,297. The median was $68,000. Thirty-four horses failed to meet their reserve, resulting in an RNA rate of 16.1%. King's Equine led the consignors with two sales bringing $2.45 million. De Meric Sales came in second with eight head sold for $1,933,000. Mahmud Mouni was the leading buyer with three purchases totaling $2.69 million. Colts were in demand as five of the top six prices were all colts. Hip 578, a filly by Tiz the Law was the highest-priced filly of the session at $1.05 million. She was purchased by Mouni, who also purchased Hip 416, an Into Mischief colt for $1.4 million from the King's Equine consignment, and Hip 305, a colt by Charlatan for $240,000 from Randy Miles' consignment. "I think as an industry, we are a glass-half-full industry, right?" Wojciechowski said on competing with a record OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. "We're always waiting for the next big horse, and we're always waiting for the next big win. So I would never say that we never thought it could happen, but we're always hoping."