Supplemented Distorted Humor filly hammers for $700,000 at OBS Session 2

By Sarah Mace

A real gem popped up out of the New York-bred contingent late in the second session of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training Wednesday.

Bidding on behalf of Susan and Charlie Chu’s Baoma Corp., Donato Lanni and Bob Baffert went to $700,000 to take home Hip 1253[1], a deep-pedigreed bay filly by Distorted Humor. Bred by Masters 2013 LLC and the Distorted Humor Syndicate, she was supplemented to the auction following the cancellation of the elite Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream sale. She ended the day as the co-top fourth seller overall at OBS.

The Baffert-bound filly’s pedigree page is strong. Her dam, She’ll Be Right is a winning Kentucky-bred Sky Mesa mare who is a one-hundred percent producer, with four winners from four foals to start. Her most successful progeny are Big Family (Any Given Saturday), a graded stakes placed winner at two, three and four, and Getouttamyway (Cross Traffic), a stakes performer. She’ll Be Right is also a half-sister to multiple stakes winner and Grade 1 stakes performer Storm Treasure. Third dam Lonely Beach is a stakes winner and multiple stakes producer.

Hip 1253[1] is also a pinhooking coup, having been scooped up to Raven Bloodstock for $100,000 at the Fasig-Tipton New York-bred preferred yearling sale last year. Consigned at OBS by Niall Brennan Stables, Agent XLV, the Distorted Humor filly clocked a quarter in :20 4/5 at the OBS under tack show. [VIDEO[2]]

Susan Chu, who was alerted to the filly by Baffert and Lanni on the morning of session two, told the TDN that $700,000 price tag was bigger than she anticipated.

“When I was on the phone with Bob bidding, I was thinking probably half a million is probably a good price, but then the price just kept going. I know Bob. Bob never stops. When he says, ‘Susan, I’ve got you a good horse,’ then he’ll just keep going and he’ll never stop.”

Brennan said, “We were delighted with that result. The Distorted Humor filly, they are not making too many more of them and he’s a wonderful broodmare sire, so I think if she’s a good filly, she’ll have a lot of residual value down the road. And it doesn’t hurt she’s a New York-bred filly.”

He continued, “She is a filly with a future. She is not a Quarter Horse type. We never really worked her hard on the farm at all. She just did everything nice and easy. The first time we really asked her to run was over here at the sale, but she had the class, the ability and the quality to do it.”

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A second noteworthy Empire State-bred transaction in session two, and another pinhooking success story, was Hip 549[3], a speedy chestnut colt by freshman sire Brody’s Cause who was purchased by Curragh Racing for $170,000 after turning in an eighth of mile breeze in :10 flat in the under tack show. [VIDEO[4]] Summer Mayberry and Ed Pebley bought him for just $30,000 at the OBS yearling sale last year. Mayberry Farm, Agent XI consigned the colt.

Bred by Joe Fafone, Hip 549 is the first foal out of Sweet Love, an unraced Kentucky-bred mare by Any Given Saturday who is a full sister to graded stakes winner and Grade 1 stakes performer Adventist. Three of her half-siblings are also stakes winners: Dijeerr by Danzig, a Group 3 winner in England, Isn’t He Clever by Smarty Jones, a multiple stakes winner of nearly $1 million and Sharp Writer.

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The cumulative average price for New York-breds mid-way through the sale is a very solid $84,905. The median is $45,000. Cumulatively, at the mid-way point, the OBS sale has posted a $97,582 average (down 11% year-over-year) and $50,000 median (down 23%).

It is worth noting that the resumption of the 2020 juvenile bloodstock sales season at OBS has seen an unusually strong undertow of outs and RNAs. Of 62 New York-bred catalogued through the midway point of the four-day sale, 26 were withdrawn. The spike in “outs” is most naturally ascribed to attrition as a result of the long COVID-19 triggered delay between the time the sale was closed and the date of the auction.

As to buybacks, in session one New York-bred RNA rate was a stunning 52.6%, but the tide turned somewhat in session two. Of the 36 New York-breds through the ring in all, 21 have sold for an RNA percentage of 41.7%.

The Spring Sale continues Thursday at 10:00 a.m.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2020/06/11/obs-april-in-june-session-2-recap/

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