Best goes to $5 million for Breeders' Cup winner Blue Prize
Larry Best’s burgeoning racing empire opened a new, $5 million chapter Tuesday evening when the head of OXO Equine successfully bid for recent Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Blue Prize.
A potential topper to the Fasig-Tipton November Sale, the 6-year-old daughter of Pure Prize bred in Argentina with multiple Grade 1 victories in the United States, will now lead his broodmare band of three.
“I’m now a breeder, and I now have a Breeders’ Cup champion — maybe the only way I ever get one,” Best quipped.
The former chief financial officer of a medical supplies company, Best’s profile has risen in racing quickly, and thanks to his acquisition of pricy bloodstock. One of his first purchases, Instilled Regard, ran fourth in the 2018 Kentucky Derby behind Justify, while 3-year-old turf Cambier Parc delivered Best his first Grade 1 victory this season.
Best noted that the grand dam of Instilled Regard is Heavenly Prize, who also appears on the pedigree page of Blue Prize, a chestnut who won 10 of 23 starts, earning nearly $2.7 million. Blue Prize capped her career with three consecutive wins, taking Saratoga’s Summer Colony, repeating in Keeneland’s Spinster (G1) and upsetting the Distaff at 8.9-1.
“She’s such a special horse,” Best said. “There’s a lot of mares that I pass on that are presented to be as an opportunity. I’m not a volume guy. I’m a quality guy.”
Blue Prize’s new owner wasn’t present at the Breeders’ Cup, and he wasn’t originally committed to bidding on her. But while perusing the Fasig-Tipton grounds in Lexington, Ky., just after Blue Prize arrived, he began “a very expensive love affair, as you can tell.”
“She just looked so gorgeous — probably the most beautiful horse I’ve ever seen,” Best added. “Hopefully I’ll have success breeding her. I think it was a worthwhile risk. It’s obviously more money than anyone would want to pay, but she is a Breeders’ Cup champion, and if you look at her record, it’s just stellar.”
Best said he’ll seek opinions on which stallion to pair Blue Prize with for her first season. He said the reality is, he will sell some of her offspring to offset massive costs, but expects to one day campaign OXO Equine homebreds.
Catalogued as Hip 98, Blue Prize was the second Breeders’ Cup winner through the Fasig-Tipton ring in a matter of minutes. Hip 96, Belvoir Bay, hammered for $1.5 million fresh off her victory over the boys in Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint. Mike Shannon signed the ticket for an undisclosed owner.