OBS April 2025 Pedigree Selections

Highlights from the 2025 OBS Spring catalog

The first day of the 2025 OBS Spring under-tack show will take place next Sunday, April 6th, and run through Saturday, April 12th. With over 1200 two-year-olds cataloged in this year’s auction, we’re certain to see plenty of future superstars on the track next week and through the sales ring the following week - the sale will run from April 15th through 18th. I’ve taken a look through the catalog and have picked out some interesting prospects that I believe are worth paying extra attention to this year. As a reminder, these horses are selected purely on pedigree, and this blog is intended to provide supplemental information to those interested in the sale, not as a recommendation to purchase a horse.

As always, the spring sales are an opportunity to get a look at some of the current year’s freshman sires, and there are plenty of exciting freshmen in this year’s class. I have been particularly eager to see the first foals from the likes of Maxfield, Charlatan, and Independence Hall, and based on results from OBS March, I’m not alone in my excitement. Two juveniles from Maxfield’s first crop brought seven-figure sales prices, as did one of the nine on offer from Independence Hall. All 11 Charlatan foals to successfully sell at OBS March (there were three RNAs) went for six figures.

Hip 471 - c. Charlatan x Streetwithnoname (Street Sense)

Charlatan is a stallion I have fairly high expectations for, although I’m not convinced his foals will be early spring types. While he was lightly raced, he was brilliant in his brief career, and was impeccably bred, being a son of Speightstown, who has already proven his mettle as a sire of sires, and out of the multiple graded stakes winner Authenticity. Charlatan bred 222 mares in his first season at stud for 165 live foals, and notably bred 223 mares in his second season at stud, hinting that breeders have faith in him as a sire. Last year, he had 106 yearlings sell for an average of $248,627 and median of $182,500, and so far this year his 12 two-year-olds to sell have brought an average of $315,417 and median of $342,500, so the early indications are positive here. He’s gotten plenty of quality mares who figure to match well with him, and I think he’s a safe bet to get plenty of talented runners, although precocity may be a question - he himself was unraced as a two-year-old, his dam didn’t race until she was four, and while Speightstown can get a precocious sort, his offspring are also known for improving with age.

This colt is from the family of Speightstown’s excellent runner and sire Munnings, making the choice to send Streetwithnoname to a son of Speightstown very interesting to me. In addition to Munnings, Speightstown is the sire of G1 winners Flagstaff, Shirl’s Speight, and Lady Speightspeare from this female family 1x.

In addition to coming from a female family that has worked with the sire line, this colt’s first and second damsires have both crossed well with Speightstown. The cross of Speightstown over Street Cry has produced five stakes winners in 56 starters (8.9%), while the Speightstown/Medaglia d’Oro cross, which I discussed in-depth in 2023, has remained strong with 19 stakes winners in 151 starters (12.6%), including four G1 winners. Charlatan’s damsire Quiet American has also done fairly well with Street Cry, with seven stakes winners in 123 starters (5.7%), and while the cross with Medaglia d’Oro has not been a consistent one, with just three stakes winners in 86 starters (3.5%), it has produced G1 winner Rachel’s Valentina, a daughter of Bernardini (who, like Charlatan, was out of a Quiet American mare) and out of Medaglia d’Oro’s Rachel Alexandra.

This colt is inbred 3x4 to Gone West, a pattern that does not concern me in the least. Speightstown and his descendants have done quite well going back to his sire, with 16 stakes winners in 223 starters on the cross (7.2%).

This is the third foal from stakes winner Streetwithnoname, who broke her maiden as a two-year-old in her second career start - an $80,000 maiden claiming event on the dirt at Del Mar going five furlongs, - but found most of her success on the turf as a three-year-old, with wins in an allowance optional claiming race at Del Mar and the 1 1/16 mile Robert Dupret Derby at Santa Rosa. Her first two foals were both by Hard Spun, and one of those is a winner of a $25,000 maiden claiming race in 15 lifetime starts. I believe there’s reason to expect this colt to be a better performer than his siblings, as there is much less precedent for the cross of Hard Spun with Street Cry, with just a single stakes winner in 59 starters on that cross (1.7%).