As bidding escalated on a Strong Mandate colt during the March 14 second session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales March 2-year-olds in training sale, owner Carolyn Wilson kept nudging her trainer, Larry Rivelli, to keep going.
In the end, the owner and trainer took home the colt—consigned as Hip 447 by Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables—for $775,000, co-highest price of the day.
"Carolyn has got faith in me," Rivelli said. "You have to have a team, or it doesn't work."
The colt is out of the Majestic Warrior mare Magestic Stinger and was bred in Kentucky by Golden Pedigree.
"In my opinion, he was the best horse in the sale; the most athletic," Rivelli said. "He breezed about as easy as you could do it. I've seen a million horses in my time, and this horse is a beauty. He looks like a 3-year-old. He gets over the ground perfectly."
Rivelli and Wilson said they have confidence in buying at the OBS juvenile auctions and have had good results with horses from Wavertree the last two years.
Wellabled, bought for $340,000 at the 2016 OBS April sale, has won three stakes, including the Arlington-Washington Futurity (G3). The Tabulator, a $460,000 acquisition at last year's OBS March sale, has won two stakes, including the Iroquois Stakes (G3).
The colt is from the first crop of Strong Mandate, a grade 1-winning son of Tiznow who stands at Three Chimneys Farm for a $10,000 fee.
"He's a freshman sire, a son of Tiznow, so you're hoping some of that rubs off," the conditioner said.
