Corniche Rises to the Top at OBS March Sale

How encouraging for breeders, owners, and sellers when the Thoroughbred business works the way it seems it should. Ashford Stud's freshman sire Corniche became a horse to watch before he stepped foot onto a racetrack by topping the 2021 Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training at $1.5 million. The son of Quality Road showed he was a serious racing prospect after working in :10 during the sale's under-tack show. Bloodstock agent Marette Farrell picked out Corniche for Speedway Stables' Peter Fluor and K.C. Weiner, who had just found grade 1 success with Roadster, another son of Quality Road. "My whole team here, Tescha Von Bluecher and Zoe Cadman, every one of us absolutely loved this horse. He had the composure of a real racehorse. He's physically spectacular, and he's got the pedigree," Farrell said after the purchase in 2021. Corniche, out of the grade 1-placed, multiple graded stakes winner Wasted Tears (Najran), proved to be well worth his seven-figure price. He raced undefeated at 2, when he won the American Pharoah Stakes (G1) and Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) on his way to earning champion 2-year-old male honors for 2021. He retired to stud with $1,263,500 in earnings. Corniche was back in the headlines during this week's OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale as the leading freshman sire by average price at $650,000 from four sold out of five offered. The ones purchased include the sale's third-highest-priced juvenile, a $1.35 million colt (Hip 95) out of 2013 Canadian champion 3-year-old filly Leigh Court. "We bought a couple Corniche yearlings, and they're at Travis Durr's farm, and he loves them. So far, they have shown up here," Kristian Villante of Legion Bloodstock told BloodHorse after buying Hip 95. "I think he stamped them. There's a lot of Quality Road in these horses. He's just putting out a beautiful horse. I think he should make it; hopefully he does." Pick View, which consigned Hip 95, purchased him for $275,000 during the 2025 Keeneland September Yearling Sale out of Stone Farm's consignment. Speedway bred the colt. "We loved him all year. He's never had a bad day," said Joe Pickerell with Pick View after the colt sold. "We stretched to buy him and owned him with some great partners, and he showed up and did everything right. Hopefully, he'll be at the big races in about a year from now." Fifteen freshman sires represented by at least two sold had six-figure averages at the OBS March sale and among these eight had averages above $200,000. Lane's End's Flightline, who owns the sire class's top 2025 yearling average at $712,500, was the second-leading sire by average at OBS at $525,000 from two sold. Following Flightline to complete the top five sires by average were Spendthrift Farm's Jackie's Warrior ($297,222 from nine sold), Gainesway's Drain the Clock ($276,579; 19 sold), and Airdrie Stud's Happy Saver ($275,000; two sold). Drain the Clock was the only other freshman sire represented by a seven-figure sale, one of seven juveniles sold for $1 million or more, which tied an OBS March record. De Meric Sales consigned Hip 132, a New York-bred Drain the Clock colt out of the Freud mare Making a Point, who breezed in :09 4/5 during the under-tack show. Agent Pedro Lanz went to $1.1 million to acquire the colt for Saudi Arabian owner KAS Stables. Strong Returns for Nyquist and Into Mischief OBS broke some new ground at this year's March sale. In addition to generating a record gross of $72,257,500 (OBS reported two additional sales after the close of bidding March 12, increasing its gross from the originally reported $72,050,000), the sale for the first time had its top two overall leading sires with averages above $1 million. Darley Stallions' Nyquist was the leading sire with a $1.2 million average among stallions with two or more sold. The 13-year-old son of Uncle Mo was represented by two seven-figure horses at OBS. He sired the $2 million sale topper, a filly (Hip 372) out of Smooth and Savvy (Lucky Pulpit) that was bought by Killora/Linton as agent for Boyd Racing; and, Hip 88, a colt out of Argentina champion older mare La Extrana Dama (ARG) that was bought for $1.2 million by Morplay Racing and Marquee Bloodstock. Ciaran and Amy Dunne's Wavertree Stables consigned both Nyquist juveniles. Spendthrift Farm's multiple leading sire Into Mischief ranked second among the leading sires with a $1,012,500 average from two sold. The seven-time leading North American stallion was represented by the sale's second-most-expensive purchase, a $1.85 million colt (Hip 416) out of graded-placed winner Sweet Diane (Will Take Charge) that Frank Fletcher Racing Operations bought out of Susan Montanye's SBM Training and Sales consignment. Hip 416 is the first seven-figure horse sold by Montanye. Only one other sire with at least two sold has had a seven-figure average at the OBS March sale since 2014. Three Chimneys Farm's leading sire Gun Runner had a $1,875,000 average at last year's sale and sired the $3 million sale topper, who is grade 1 winner Brant.