When bloodstock agent Ramiro Restrepo and Gustavo Delgado Jr. attended the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in coaching sale in 2022, they fell in love with a colt that wound up costing nearly thrice what coach Gustavo Delgado had licensed them to spend.
They have been undeterred and so they landed the Good Magic colt out of the Huge Brown mare Puca for $290,000. Then a wild scramble ensued to cowl the associated fee. They succeeded find extra companions in what Restrepo now refers to as a “crossroads second.”
They named the prospect Mage and Delgado, who got here from Venezuela to the US together with his son to chase the Kentucky Derby, fulfilled that dream when Mage justified his value many instances over.
When Restrepo and Delgado Jr. attended the Ocala Breeders’ Gross sales Co. March 2-year-olds in coaching sale earlier this yr, they fell in love with a Flatter colt they knew would rank among the many sale toppers.
They have been undeterred as bidding soared. Restrepo raised his hand at roughly $800,000, primarily to alert spotters of his curiosity. As others dropped out, he got here in as soon as extra. His profitable bid: a cool $1.3 million.
This time, no wild scramble to pay the invoice adopted. Restrepo calls it the “Mage impact.”
“The curiosity from potential companions was there,” he defined. “With Mage, it was the 2 of us swinging baseball bats attempting to determine it out.”
The Flatter colt out of the Midnight Lute mare Napier was named Ferocious. He’s dwelling as much as his identify. There may be each indication majority proprietor J.R. Ranch, Restrepo’s Marquee Bloodstock, Excessive Step Racing, and the Delgado’s OGMA Investments have been proper to increase themselves to seven figures for him.
The teenager made an auspicious debut, overcoming a poor begin from the rail on a muddy, sealed observe Aug. 3 at Saratoga Race Course to dominate a six-furlong contest by 7 ¾ lengths. He missed by a half-length to Chancer McPatrick within the Sept. 2 Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, a defeat that continues to level to him as a major contender when the FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Introduced by TAA is run Nov. 1 at Del Mar.
Ferocious misplaced a entrance shoe throughout the seven-furlong Hopeful at Saratoga. Of utmost significance, he re-engaged with the winner when it appeared he may fade. He displayed the need to battle, an important high quality no bloodstock agent can detect and no coach can instill. He was, certainly, ferocious.
“Solely good horses do this. They see one other horse go and so they begin operating once more. Even in defeat, you’ll be able to acknowledge the standard there,” mentioned Delgado, who assists his father. “If that’s going to be his ‘B’ sport, we’re going to be wonderful with it.”
An enormous check looms within the 1 1/16-mile Claiborne Breeders’ Futurity Oct. 5 at Keeneland. Win or lose, that ought to present Ferocious with a useful studying expertise as he encounters a really totally different tempo state of affairs and navigates two turns for the primary time. It needs to be a great set-up for the Juvenile, to be run on the identical distance for a $2 million purse.
Because the Delgados and Restrepo transfer ahead, the “Mage impact” is in full impact.
“All of us should be grateful to Mage for what he did for us. He sort of modified the best way we do enterprise now,” Delgado Jr. mentioned. “Due to him, folks have a look at us otherwise. He opened a window of alternative, that’s the easiest way to place it, and we try to profit from it.”
Whereas they could have as soon as been brief on money, they by no means lacked ambition. “We at all times have set the objective of being on the highest degree,” Delgado Jr. mentioned.
Restrepo attends gross sales with spending energy he as soon as lacked whereas the Delgados and their group fall again on their expertise with Mage, who went unraced at 2 however got here on quickly to seize the 2023 Kentucky Derby Introduced by Woodford Reserve in solely his fourth begin.
Train rider J.J. Delgado, who helped to develop the son of Good Magic, is sharing these duties with Elmer Nunez aboard Ferocious. Veteran groom Moises Morales tends to Ferocious’ each want, simply as he did with Mage.
“You already know the saying, ‘It’s not my first rodeo?’ We’re beginning to get that feeling with good horses,” Delgado Jr. mentioned.
They have been cautious to not ask Mage for an excessive amount of too quickly. Similar with Ferocious.
“We’re considering long-term with this horse,” Restrepo mentioned. “On no account has he reached his ceiling. On no account have the screws been tightened all the best way.”
In response to Delgado Jr., there isn’t a strain related to Ferocious’ large price ticket.
“Stress comes once you pay that sort of cash and also you begin breezing them and so they’re not displaying up and so they’re not doing something and the homebred beats the $1.3 million,” he mentioned. “That’s once you really get the strain. However he was doing all the things really easy and so good, the sensation modifications utterly. You begin considering, ‘Oh, we’re going to have an excellent time with this one!’ ”
If Ferocious ought to advance to the Juvenile and have that demanding race go his approach, there might be no extra idyllic place to rejoice than the place the turf meets the surf at Del Mar.
