State-Breds at OBS June 2024

A few selections from the upcoming OBS sale

The breeze show for the OBS June Two-Year-Olds In Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale begins tomorrow and lasts through Sunday, with the sale itself taking place June 12th through 14th. This sale has been a great source of high-class runners at varying price points - multiple G1 winner Adare Manor sold for $350,000 in 2021, while multiple graded stakes winner Offlee Naughty sold for just $4,000 in 2020. The OBS June sale has also produced quality state-breds such as multiple graded stakes winner Yes I Am Free ($135k in 2108), multiple graded stakes winner Cross Border ($10k in 2016), multiple stakes winner Recruiter ($125k in 2022), stakes winner Sweet Brown Sugar ($32k in 2023), stakes winner Dancing N Dixie ($35k in 2023), and stakes winner Seminole Chief ($80k in 2023).

This year’s edition of the sale includes some very promising state-bred two-year-olds, and I want to talk about four of them today.

Hip 928 - c. Outwork x Miss Manatee (Smarty Jones)

This registered Maryland-bred is a full brother to the promising filly Play Harder, who brought her career tally to four wins from five starts this past weekend in an allowance optional claiming race at Laurel Park (video above). Play Harder, who sold for $25,000 at this sale last year, has now earned $126,895 in those five starts.

This mare, Miss Manatee, was a three-time winner in 11 starts who never raced for a claiming tag. She was a daughter of Smarty Jones and out of the stakes-placed Purge mare Ms. Moscow, the dam of three other winners from as many to race. She traces tail-female to the mare Judy-Rae of Lowe family A4. Judy-Rae is the tail-female ancestor of 129 stakes winners worldwide, including the likes of California Chrome, Bayern, Green Desert, and Covfefe, and she is the fifth dam of Arch, the damsire of Outwork’s sire Uncle Mo.

In addition to Play Harder, Miss Manatee is also the dam of a Golden Lad gelding named Kingdom, who sold for $215,000 at the 2022 Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Two-Year-Olds In Training Sale. He is a four-time winner in 11 starts with earnings of $153,460. This is the type of production I love to see from a mare - not (yet) flashy enough to drive up demand with black type, but her first two foals are both very solid six-figure earners, and both are still racing.

The cross of Uncle Mo over mares carrying Smarty Jones’ sire Elusive Quality has produced six stakes winners in 83 starters (7.2%), including G1 winners Randomized and Gomo, while the cross of Uncle Mo over mares carrying Purge’s sire Pulpit has produced 12 stakes winners in 107 starters (11.2%), including G1 Belmont Stakes winner Mo Donegal.