We had eyes and ears on hand at the OBS June sale just in case a horse jumped up and demanded our attention.
That is exactly what the Mr Speaker filly from Gene Recio’s consignment did, soaring through a quarter-mile and impressing David Ingordo and his team back at the barn.

“What a nice breeze and this sale is a little off the radar for a lot of the big buyers so I think we can get her for a decent price,” David said a few days before the sale, proving to be prophetic.

The filly will be trained by Arnaud Delacour, who has done well with a handful of horses for West Point over the last year. Arnaud has an abundance of racing options from his base at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland, within easy shipping distance to tracks throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast, and he also keeps a string in Kentucky.

The filly was bred by the fabled Calumet Farm, one of the largest breeders in America. They can’t keep everything (just like with Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike) and Recio prepares a group each year to be sold as 2-year-olds. West Point has developed a comfort level with Gene’s consignment, which produced Tampa Bay Derby (G2) winner King Guillermo in his very first season at the sales in 2019 and the next year sold us King’s Ovation, who is Graded stakes-placed and still rolling as a 5-year-old in 2023, notching consecutive wins at Keeneland and Churchill Downs this spring.

Mr Speaker came from regal lineage (he’s by top sire Pulpit and his second dam is Hall of Fame legend Personal Ensign) and lived up to that standing as a racehorse, winning the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes on the dirt at Keeneland and the Grade 1 Belmont Derby on the turf in New York. As a sire, he has delivered a couple of top-class horses: Speech, who won the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes and finished third in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, and Speaking Scout, winner of the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby last fall at Del Mar.

The new filly’s dam, Off the Road, was a champion 2-year-old in her native Brazil and later moved to Southern California, where she finished second in the Grade 3 Las Cienegas Stakes at Santa Anita.

Price includes all acquisition costs and all training, veterinary, and insurance expenses until January 1, 2024.