Ocala Breeders’ Sales continued its string of successful sales this past week with the OBS June Sale.
Once again, buyers were willing to open their wallets and sales broke records.
The sales-topper was sold Tuesday, the opening day of the sale, when a First Dude colt brought the hammer down at $400,000.
The seller was Top Line Sales, LLC, and the buyer was David Dizney Racing Syndicate.
Hip No. 199 was out of the mare Natalie’s Moment.
The sire First Dude was a homebred that ran under the colors of Dizney’s father Donald Dizney.
Wednesday’s session-topper was Hip No. 631 – a filly by Astrology – sold by Tom McCrocklin.
The filly was purchased for $300,000 by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm.
McCrocklin purchased the filly from Pope for $50,000 at the 2016 OBS August Yearling Sale.
Pope seemingly wanted the filly back paying the $300,000 price tag.
The 2-year-old sessions of this year’s sale had 424 horses sell for $15,216,900 compared to last year’s four-day sale 619 horses selling for $17,930,900. This year’s cumulative average rose 23.9 percent.
“The OBS June Sale wrapped up another good 2-year-old sales season. It is nice to see a broader buying base active at different price ranges,” said OBS president Tom Venturi. “The June Sale has grown in stature over the last several years thanks to horses like multiple Breeders’ Cup winner Goldencents. The consignors have complete confidence in bringing their top horses to the June Sale, which has been a big boost to the sales results.”
Venturi praised the track’s artificial racing surface for its performance during under-tack shows, which were plagued by inclement weather. The facility has a SAFETRACK surface.
“The racetrack was incredible throughout the under-tack shows and handled the heavy rains extremely well. It would have been difficult to hold an under-tack show on a traditional dirt surface and it certainly wouldn’t have been consistent. Our track crew, led by Bob Baron, did a tremendous job under very trying conditions.”
Eddie Woods was the top consignor with 18 head sold for $1,599,500.
The top buyer was Linda Rice, who purchased seven horses for $1,190,000.
The next sale on the OBS schedule is the prestigious Selected Sale of Yearlings on Oct. 10.
That will be followed by the Open Sale of Yearlings on October 11 and 12.
TOP FIVE PRICES (Hip number, sex, sire, mare, consignor, buyer) price
1 – #199, colt, First Dude, Natalie’s Moment, Top Line Sales, David Dizney Racing Syndicate) $400,000.
2 – #335, colt, Midnight Lute, Screen Giant, Timber Creek, agent, Linda Rice, agent) $320,000.
3 – #317, colt, Twirling Candy, Saint Knows, Eddie Woods, agent, Bradley Thoroughbreds, agent) $310,000.
4 – #631, Astrology, filly, Dreamingly, Tom McCrocklin, agent, Whisper Hill Farm, agent) $300,000.
5 – #138 (Times Square), colt, Tapit, Magical Feeling, Eddie Woods, agent, Calumet Farm) $250,000.