$1.7 million Congrats filly tops OBS March 2-year-old sale

Congrats, the nation’s leading sire of winners over the past two years, had his biggest winner of 2017 in the sales ring on Wednesday when a filly by the WinStar stallion sold for $1.7 million to top the March 14-15 OBS Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training.

The bay filly, who had blazed through her Under Tack Show breeze on 9 4/5 seconds, was consigned by the McCathan Brothers, with Kerri Radcliffe, agent, the winning bidder on hip No. 360.

“I really thought she was going to top the sale, and once she put in the really quick work over there, I was even more confident,” said Justin Zayat, for whom the McCathans consigned the filly. “But we knew the competition was there, and it would just be a question of who wanted her the most…Kerry Radcliffe did a great job, and Bob Baffert gets to train her, so I’m sure when I go to California I’ll be able to see her…I wish them luck with her, she looks like she’s a freak of nature.” 

The filly’s dam, Azalea Belle, is an unraced Dixie Union mare whose dam Westerly Breeze won the Alcibiades S. (G2). 

The sales topper was bred in Kentucky by Todd Frederick, Chad Frederick, and Phoenix Farm. It was reported that she will be sent to trainer Bob Baffert’s barn.