$1.5 Million Tiz the Law Colt Tops Closing OBS Session

Terry Finley of West Point Thoroughbreds figures his partnership has been doing business with Steven Venosa for the better part of three decades and credits the longtime consignor with helping prep some of the best horses to have carried his operation's gold and black silks. The fruits of that relationship were magnified inside the Ocala Breeders' Sales pavilion during the final session of the OBS Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training when West Point Thoroughbreds, in partnership with Spendthrift Farm and St. Elias Stable, secured what Finley hopes will be yet another success story as they went to $1.5 million to land a colt by Tiz the Law (Hip 1094) and top the bellwether juvenile auction that produced year-over-year gains in gross and a record average. The four-day OBS Spring auction was packed with fireworks as a total of nine horses sold for seven figures, including six that sold during the second session. Few had a better week than Venosa, however, as his S G V Thoroughbreds consignment produced the sale's top two prices. Prior to selling Hip 1094, a dark bay or brown colt who worked in :10 during the under tack show, he led Hip 601 up during the April 15 session and watched the bay Gun Runner colt sell for $1.45 million to Kerri Radcliffe, agent for Memo Racing. According to Venosa, this is the first time he has had two seven-figure offerings come out of his barn in the same week. "Without my team we're not able to do this. So, they take just as much credit as I do," Venosa said. "We knew (the Tiz the Law colt) was one of the top horses in the sale. To reach that level, you just never know. You try to lead them up there and, like with the last one, you let the people evaluate them and that's what they are worth. The most important thing is I'm really excited about the home he's going to." Hip 1094 is out of the winning, stakes-placed Souper Speedy mare Georgian Dancer, a half sister to grade 2 winner and 2016 Canadian champion female sprinter River Maid. The colt was bred in Louisiana by Schwing Thoroughbreds. Venosa said the son of Tiz the Law has made an "amazing" transformation since he purchased him as a yearling for $125,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale from the Paramount Sales consignment. After opening with a bid of $100,000 Friday, the colt morphed into a sales topper with Finley prevailing as he bid alongside Spendthrift general manager Ned Toffey and Monique Delk, executive director of racehorse development for St. Elias. "Tiz the Law is a stallion where we've now bought three of them at the 2-year-old sales, and he's come forward like a whirlwind," Finley said. "I think he's going to make an impact on the breed for a lot of years to come. We've been doing business with Steven for about 30 years and bought our first really good horse, Awesome Gem, out of Steve's barn when he worked for J.J. Crupi in 2004. So, I have a lot of respect for the work that he does and this horse, he really was a horse all three of us wanted." Venosa added, "It seems like (the colt) gets better and better. As he was showing here, several people would come and look at him every day and every day he just really blossomed. The (Tiz the Laws), they're running on dirt, they're running on turf. They're showing up at 2-year-old sales. And most importantly they are sound. To bring a horse of that size and work the way he did was very impressive." The sale-topping colt fittingly closed out an OBS Spring sale that demonstrated market strength. The total gross of $88,761,500 from 637 sold marks a 7.7% increase over the $82,373,500 generated by the same number sold in 2024. The average of $139,343 was up from last year's mark of $129,315 and topped the previous Spring record of $129,577 in 2022. Overall median declined from $70,000 in 2024 to $65,000. A total of 128 horses failed to meet their reserve for an RNA rate of 16.7%, compared to 18.5% in 2024. Libyan-based bloodstock agent Mahmud Mouni led all buyers by gross with 11 purchased for $4,855,000, including securing Hip 416, a son of Into Mischief, for $1.4 million from the consignment of King's Equine, which sold two seven-figure horses during the week. "Very appreciative and glad, a lot of adjectives that you can ultimately apply to the week," said OBS director of sales Tod Wojciechowski. "The international buyers were here, and they were excited to buy horses, and it looks like they did. Certainly, we had a broad spectrum of buyers from all over the world." The demand for offspring by Tiz the Law was evident across the sale, including in the second-highest price of Friday's closing session. Hip 970, a bay colt by the Ashford Stud stallion, sold for $825,000 to Flatland Racing Stables. Consigned by de Meric Sales, the colt, who worked in :10, was bred in Kentucky by Upson Downs Farm out of the winning Curlin mare Dictate Cool. Dictate Cool is out of multiple stakes winner and graded stakes-placed Walkwithapurpose and is a half sister to stakes winner Where Paradise Lay and Regulatory Risk, who ran third in the 2024 Kentucky Oaks (G1). "Beautiful horse. He always moved great. It all went the right way for him," said Tristan de Meric of de Meric Sales, which led all consignors by gross with 32 sold for $7,869,000. "He's always trained really well and I'm a big fan of that sire. I think he's going to keep getting better. (The offspring), they all train so well and I can't say enough good things about the sire or the horse." The session's third-highest price came when Case Clay Thoroughbred Management went to $750,000 to land Hip 1081, a dark bay or brown colt by Quality Road consigned by Julie Davies. The colt, who worked in :10 1/5, is out of the winning, grade 1-placed Langfuhr mare Fuhriously Kissed and is from the female family of grade 1 winner On Fire Baby. "Time will tell, but he looks to me like a Saturday horse," said Clay, who purchased the colt on behalf of Wathnan Racing and purchased three others on the day, including Hip 1159, a filly by City of Light that sold for $500,000 out of the Wavertree consignment. "He's by a great sire out of a grade 1-placed mare and just a beautiful mover." The day's fourth-highest price came when Hip 1092, a bay colt by Quality Road consigned by Wavertree Stables, sold for $650,000 to Mouni. The colt, who breezed in :20 4/5, is out of graded stakes winner Genre, by Bernardini, and is a half brother to multiple graded stakes-placed winner Cooke Creek. End of an Era Moments before the OBS Spring sale came to a close, the pavilion witnessed the end of an era. Longtime consignor and OBS board member Eddie Woods sent his final horse through the ring before his retirement, generating a result befitting the man who helped revolutionize the juvenile auctions. Hip 1177, a son of Twirling Candy out of the multiple graded stakes-winning mare Irish Jasper, sold to Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners and Sabby Racing for $560,000, providing Woods and his wife Angela a most appropriate sendoff. "It's great. It was fantastic how he sold," an emotional Woods said. "He was a beautiful horse. I expected him to sell well, and it was neat for a really nice horse to be my last horse and not some $5,000 horse. And he's going to a good spot." "It's kind of bittersweet," Wojciechowski added of Woods' retirement. "Knowing that we're not going to have one of our top consignors around is a bittersweet thing." Woods cemented his place in the OBS annals during the March auction when he sold a Gun Runner colt for an OBS-record $3 million. The parade of success continued for him this week as he consigned Hip 833, a bay colt by the late Uncle Mo who topped Thursday's session when he sold for $1.3 million to Marquee Bloodstock. "I think my favorite OBS memory is that we had the first horse ever to work in :10 flat back in the day," Woods recalled. "That was when :22 flat was still a good time and :10 1/5, you were high-fiving everybody. The first horse to work :10 flat, that was notable. And then we sold a horse for an awful lot of money here. "We had some great days; we've had some bad days here. It's just part of it," Woods continued. "But our record here has been very good for the amount of horses we have. I've been on the board a long time here and we've developed this whole thing from nothing. To be part of that development has been really good, very proud of that too." The next sale on the OBS calendar is the June 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale June 17-19 with the under tack show running June 9-14. Full sale results can be found at obssales.com.