Medaglia d'Oro colt goes for $650,000 . . .
As the last juvenile Marcial Galan will sell this year headed into the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. pavilion the afternoon of June 18, the veteran consignor stood in the back ring, eyes glued to the board that would determine what kind of note his season would end on.
When the final number flashed after one last bid from agent Donato Lanni during the third day of selling at the 2026 OBS June Two-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age sale, Galan began digesting the fact he could plan a well-deserved vacation for the purpose of celebrating a career pinnacle.
From an all-time sale record price to setting new marks for gross and average, the OBS June Sale concluded its three-day run with no shortage of moments to put on a highlight reel. The final day of the last major juvenile auction of the year contributed to that run of milestones as Hip 824, Bulmaro, a dark bay or brown colt by pensioned Darley stalwart Medaglia d’Oro, sold to Lanni on behalf of Zedan Racing for $650,000 to lead the final session.
Bred by Jason Hall, Herschel Martindale, Joe Wheeler, and David Branch, the Medaglia d’Oro colt was the second highest priced horse at this year’s OBS June exercise, behind only Hip 428, a gray or roan filly by Triple Crown winner Justify who became the highest priced horse to ever sell at an OBS June auction when she went for $1.4 million to Speedway Stables. Bulmaro also earned a place of distinction with Galan as he is the highest priced horse ever to come out of his consignment.
“I’ve sold like 200 horses in my life, and this is the highest,” Galan said. “Me and my wife are about to cry. We work really hard, and when something goes wrong we feel like what did we do wrong? But as I told the owners, not everything goes the right way all the time. But we’re really happy with this. He gave us the result we wanted. That was the last horse and…we’re ready for vacation now.”
The end result for Bulmaro was particularly satisfying for his connections given the setback the colt endured last winter. Out of the winning Desert Party mare Scarlet Emerald, he suffered a stall accident that left him with a hematoma on his foreleg that ultimately cost him three months of training time.
When he showed up on the OBS grounds last week for the under-tack show, however, he showcased his rapid development with an impressive breeze in :9 4/5.
“I have to pat the buying public on the back because they did a great job of taking (the missed training time) into account and seeing the horse for the athlete he is,” Hall said. “Marcial has just done an incredible job for us for 4-5 years now. Even when we had a situation like this, he rolled his sleeves up and got the job done. The process is long and can be filled with some peaks and valleys and we’re just happy that it worked out.”
The Medaglia d’Oro colt is a half brother to stakes placed winner Naughty Lottie, an OBS graduate, and his dam Scarlet Emerald, another OBS graduate, was a winning sprinter for Hall during her racing days. He will now be stablemates with Zedan, who set an all-time OBS record when he was purchased by their owner for $10.5 million at the April auction.
“He looks fast. He looks like one that will go on,” Lanni said of Bulmaro. “All year for the good horses, there have been a lot of strong bidders. Every year seems to get stronger and stronger. I think there is a lot of money out there and people want to have fun.”
The money indeed showed up throughout all levels of the OBS June sale.
Direct comparisons to the 2025 June sale are not applicable due to last year’s auction being condensed over two days, but this year saw the sale generate gross receipts of $28,528,500 from 559 head sold, setting a new June record for the 2-year-olds in training portion. The cumulative average of $51,035 was also a June record as of the close of business Thursday with the overall median of $25,000 equaling the record mark set last year. The cumulative RNA rate was 20.6 percent.
Two horses of racing age sold Thursday for a total of $23,000, bringing the overall gross to $28,551,500 and average to $50,894.
Last year’s sale sold 507 horses for $25,473,000 with an average of $50,243 and RNA rate of 15.9 percent. No horses of racing age were sold in 2025.
Thursday’s final session generated $8,869,500 gross from 173 head sold with an average of $51,269 and median of $21,000.
“I think it’s been a banner year for us with the records that we’ve set through all three sales and ending up on a high note with the June sale,” said Tod Wojciechowski, Director of Sales for OBS. “Very excited and very happy with the results on the year. I still think there were a lot of horses that got sold, period, and we sold a lot of horses at a lot of different price levels. I know sometimes you always want to see more at different levels, but there was plenty of trade of horses.”
A total of 11 horses brought $300,000 or more during this year’s June auction, besting the eight horses who hit that threshold during the entirety of the 2025 edition of the sale. Two who added to that total were Hip 827, a dark bay or brown colt by Medaglia d'Oro, and Hip 876, a dark bay or brown filly by Vekoma, both of whom sold for $400,000 Thursday.
Consigned by 30-30 Ranch, the Medaglia d’Oro colt breezed in :21 1/5 and sold to D. J. Stable LLC. He is out of the stakes winning Lemon Drop Kid mare Season Ticket.
The Vekoma filly breezed in :20 2/5, adding to a tremendous week for Jesse Hoppel of Hoppel LLC, who also consigned the $1.4 million Justify filly. The Vekoma filly is out of the winning Discreetly Mine mare Sonora and sold to Kimmel & Sallusto, agent for trainer Miguel Clement.
“I've done well here year after year. Hopefully, it will continue,” said Hoppel, who led all consignors with 18 head sold for $2,543,000.
Another standout Thursday was Hip 995, a chestnut colt by Cyberknife consigned by First Call, who sold for $310,000 to MorPlay Racing. The colt, who breezed in :10 1/5, is out of the multiple stakes winning Pollard's Vision mare Vertical Vision and is a half brother to multiple graded stakes winner Vertical Oak.