By Jessica Martini
Looking to follow-up on a record-setting 2022 renewal, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training opens its four-day run in Central Florida Tuesday morning, with bidding beginning at 10:30 a.m.
“Once again the consignors have brought a quality group of horses,” said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. “The breeze show went smoothly and those horses got to show themselves on the track. We are excited for the sale.”
The Spring sale has become a must-stop on the juvenile sales calendar for consignors and buyers alike. The juggernaut auction set records for gross, average and median for three straight years and the streak was only halted by a global pandemic in 2020. A year later, it picked up right where it had left off, setting another high mark for gross in 2021. The rebound was complete in 2022, with records across the board once again.
“It's the go-to 2-year-old sale in the world,” said Wojciechowski. “I think the increase in international trade continues from year to year mainly because, quite frankly, the horses who have come out of the April sale go on and do well, they perform at the racetrack. Ultimately, that's what brings clientele back to buy horses here. They've been happy with the purchases they have made and have been successful with them. And that's been proven all over the world.”
During last year's Spring sale, 705 juveniles sold for $90,723,000 for an average of $128,685 and a median of $65,000. Five horses topped the $1-million mark, led by the $2.3-million Arabian Knight (Uncle Mo), who won this year's GIII Southwest S. That colt's buyer, Amr Zedan, has already made an impact at OBS this spring, paying a sale-topping $2-million for a son of Good Magic at the March sale, which opened the juvenile sales season last month.
The March sale concluded its three-day run with strong final figures, but left buyers and sellers expecting to see a broader market at the Spring sale, with its catalogue of 1,222 head.
“I think there is always still going to be a flight to quality, but April has proved itself the spot to buy any kind of horse at all different price levels,” Wojciechowski said. “So, I think we will see that again this year.”
During last week's seven-session under-tack show, four horses shared the furlong bullet time of :9 3/5: a filly by Mendelssohn (hip 141, video); a colt by Frosted (hip 449, video); a colt by Into Mischief (hip 967, video); and a filly by Speightstown (hip 1012, video).
A daughter of Speightstown (hip 618) equaled the track record while working the week's fastest quarter-mile of :20 1/5.
“I thought it was very consistent all seven days,” Wojciechowski said of the under-tack show. “We were fortunate that we had a very good weather pattern. We had a few days where headwinds entered into the equation, but other than that, we didn't have to contend with rain or a variety of different temperatures. It was pretty steady throughout the week. Everybody got a great chance to display their horses.”
Asked if this year's Spring sale could surpass the record-setting 2022 renewal, Wojciechowski said with a chuckle, “We are certainly going to try.”
The Spring sale continues through Friday with bidding beginning each day at 10:30 a.m.
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