Marette Farrell and her team saw a lot in the Practical Joke colt (Hip 626) consigned by Wavertree Stables during his under tack preview, where he blitzed a furlong in :09 4/5. A few hips before the strapping bay colt commanded $925,000 from Speedway Stables on Day 3 of the OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale, a Twirling Candy filly (Hip 600) from Dunne's consignment sold for $900,000 to Japan's Hideyuki Mori.
"He's a beautiful physical, athletic horse," Farrell said. "He had a great breeze. Zoe (Cadman) loved him on the front side, and Tessa (Von Bluecher) said it was a near-perfect gallop out for her on the backside. Practical Joke has done no wrong this year; he has done super with a lot of high-quality horses, so we feel he's a stallion on the move. (Peter) Fluor himself was in here and loved the horse himself."
Bred in Kentucky by Farm d'Allie Racing Stable, the colt out of Louisiana Voodoo sold to Cypress Creek as a weanling during the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in 2021 for $220,000.
Farrell added: "The good horses are making a lot of money. There are many buying groups here, and it is quite hard to buy if they want something. We are very pleased we have bought three horses and are thrilled with what we got, but none of them were cheap."
Further down the page in the colt's family are the grade 1-placed Givemeaminit and a pair of stakes-placed runners in Star Celebrity and Real Dingo.
"He couldn't have trained any better than he trained," consignor Ciaran Dunne said. "He was very simple, straightforward, a plain brown wrapper. He showed up every day and went from strength to strength. The breeze show is the be-all and end-all. If you perform on the racetrack, you get rewarded handsomely. If you miss, it's like any endeavor. You don't get paid if you play soccer and miss the goal. If you hit the target here, you get paid."
Just 20 hips prior, Dunne sent a Twirling Candy filly through the ring, seeing the bidding climb to $900,000 with Japanese trainer Mori, a staple at United States juvenile sales, signing for the fleet-footed filly. She breezed a furlong in :09 4/5 during the under tack show last week.
Bred in Kentucky by Woods Edge Farm and sold at the Keeneland September Sale last year for $265,000 to Red Wings Enterprises, the filly is out of the stakes-winning mare Laudation.
"She was a beautiful yearling when we bought her, which was reflected in her price," Dunne commented. "She's been a good filly all year, and we had high expectations, but this exceeded them; it's the market we have. If they perform on the racetrack and show up at the barn, the sky's the limit."
Mori was elated to add the filly to his haul of four other juveniles set for Japan, this filly being the priciest thus far.
Speaking through a translator, Mori commented, "She's a good mover, and she was the one we wanted. I have purchased four so far this sale; the horses have been costly, so it's been hard this sale."
