Million-Dollar Yaupon Colt Headlines Final Session at OBS March Sale

The Three Amigos didn't flinch at seven figures. Bloodstock agent Donato Lanni signed the ticket on behalf of the California ownership group of Michael Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman, dropping $1 million on Hip 576, a bay colt by Yaupon consigned by King's Equine, to top the third and final session of the OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.

"I bought him for the Three Amigos," Lanni said. "He was beautiful and fast and sound, came out of the work really good. These horses that bring this kind of money, they just have to do everything right. They've got to vet at the end and they've got to just do everything right. So he was a horse that did good and we loved the sire. A big Yaupon fan. And so the price is kind of expected. He was a cool horse."

The colt will head to California to be trained by Bob Baffert, continuing a partnership that already produced 2025 Best Pal Stakes (G3) winner Desert Gate, whom the Three Amigos purchased at this same sale a year ago for $260,000. The return on that investment makes the seven-figure commitment on Hip 576 look like anything but a gamble.

The pedigree backs up the price. Hip 576 is a Kentucky-bred out of Balbina, a Lemon Drop Kid mare whose dam is grade 1-placed, multiple graded stakes winner Ready's Gal. Balbina is also a half-sister to graded stakes winner Machen by Distorted Humor. The colt breezed a furlong in :9 4/5 during the under-tack preview, and trainer Jose D'Angelo, who had purchased him for $235,000 at the Keeneland September sale last year, clearly prepared him well enough to attract that kind of attention in the ring.

Yaupon's commercial standing made the price feel inevitable. The 2025 leading first-crop sire had eight lots sell across the three-day OBS March sale for an average of $347,500, more than 11 times his bred-on stud fee and the highest average for any second-crop sire at the 2026 sale, according to Spendthrift Farm.

Hip 576 pushed the number of seven-figure purchases at this year's OBS March sale to seven, matching the auction's all-time record. The week had already featured a $2 million Nyquist filly sold to Boyd Racing, which led the second session. The three-day sale posted a gross of roughly $71.8 to $72 million from 439 to 443 horses sold, depending on the source, eclipsing the previous March record of $71,473,500 set in 2023 when 464 horses sold. The average climbed past $162,000, up significantly from the 2025 figure of $151,992, and the median rose from $70,000 last year to $85,000.

The Three Amigos also added Hip 322, a Charlatan colt out of the Uncle Mo mare Santa Elena, during the second session for $250,000. That colt hails from the family of multiple Grade 1 winner and millionaire Pure Clan.

For Yaupon, the million-dollar headline is just the latest data point confirming his place atop the commercial sire rankings. For the Three Amigos and Baffert, the clock starts now.