$1 million American Pharoah filly a home run for the Gladwells at OBS March Sale

American Pharoah filly (Hip 532) co-bred by Torie Gladwell sold for $1 million at the OBS March Sale. [Photos by Judit Seipert]

Selling big-ticket horses at public auction is nothing new to Jimbo and Torie Gladwell of Top Line Sales. While the Williston-based operation has fashioned a well-deserved reputation for selling talented racehorses, the sale of a $1 million bay filly by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah to Donato Lanni, agent, during the Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training on March 16 gave the couple an extra reason to celebrate. Torie also bred the precocious filly in Kentucky in partnership with E.V.S. Corp.

It marked the second seven-figure horse to sell in the auction ring for Top Line Sales, which also sold Princess Noor for $1,350,000 to agent Gary Young, agent for Zedan Racing Stables, at the 2020 OBS Spring Sale. Princess Noor when on to capture three of five career starts, including the 2020 Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1) before selling for $2.9 million to Katsumi Yoshida in foal to leading sire Into Mischief at last year’s Fasig-Tipton November Sale.

“That’s the most I’ve ever sold a homebred for, and the second time we’ve sold a horse for more than a million dollars,” said an emotional Torie moments after Lanni signed the ticket for the juvenile filly on behalf of Susan and Charlie Chu’s Baoma Corp., following a spirited round of bidding that concluded with a light round of applause inside the sale pavilion. “The first one (Princess Noor) worked out pretty well, so hopefully she goes on to be just as good as the other horse we sold for more than a million dollars.”

“I definitely did not expect that at all,” she added. “We had quite a few people on her. The pedigree was a little bit lighter on her. We weren’t really sure what she would bring, but obviously, two people wanted her.”

Torie and Jimbo Gladwell of Top Line Sales. [Photos by Judit Seipert]

The filly is produced from the Forest Camp mare Just Parker, and is a half-sister to two-time winner Foxy Posse. This is also the family of graded stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Following Sea, stakes winner and graded stakes-placed Qahira, and stakes winners Stormin’ Lyon and Quick Flip. The popular filly caught the eye of prospective buyers at the sale’s under tack preview when she worked a fast eighth-of-a-mile in :10.

Lanni, who handled the bidding for the Chus, said of the filly, “I had a feeling (Hip 532) was going to bring a lot. When you come to these sales and you ask these horses for so much, very few are able to do what they do. This filly had everything. She’s a homebred, and she is just a queen. This filly will go to Bob Baffert (to train), and we are pumped. Bob was here, and he liked her a lot. If anyone knows what a good American Pharoah looks like, it would be him (Baffert trained American Pharoah).”

Shortly before Top Line sold the American Pharoah filly—which was one of four seven-figure horses sold at the OBS March sale this year—they saw another offering, this one a Kentucky-bred colt by first-crop sire Bolt d’Oro sell for $900,000 to Japanese trainer Hideyuki Mori. The handsome colt is out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Foolish Cause, a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winner Get Stormy. Foolish Cause is also the dam of stakes winner Foolish Humor 

“He’s been a straightforward horse all year for us,” Jimbo said of the colt who is bound for Japan. “He is very precocious. I’m so happy for Mr. Mori. He is going to love this colt.”

The Gladwells, who launched Top Line Sales in 2008, have come about their horsemanship naturally. Jimbo’s father is veteran horseman Jimmy Gladwell, and Torie, a Missouri native, began her career with show horses before transitioning to Thoroughbreds and working early on for pinhooker Tony Bowling. Jimbo and Torie will seek to keep the momentum going this week in South Florida with a six-horse consignment under their Top Line Sales banner at the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Wednesday, March 30.