OBS March Sale Weathers Market Uncertainty on Day 1

The air was filled with uncertainty and no small amount of sanitizer March 17 when the doors opened for the first session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training.

But as consignors and buyers poured through the doors—graciously manned by OBS employees working to make sure attendees touched minimal surfaces in order to delay the spread of  COVID-19—business proceeded without much interruption for the better part of seven hours. 

OBS reported 134 horses from 241 offered were sold for gross receipts of $12,550,500, at an average of $93,660 and a median of $50,000. The 107 that went unsold represented an RNA rate of 44.4%. 

At last year's session, 157 horses changed hands for $22,786,500, an average of $145,137 and a median of $77,000. Forty-eight went unsold for a buyback rate of 23.4%.

Despite a precipitous decline in sales, consignors and buyers remained hopeful but realistic about how the continued pressures of the COVID-19 pandemic have affected the market and the expendable income of many buyers looking to buy juveniles.

"It's not great and the atmosphere isn't great, but at the same time we're getting some horses moved, which is better than no horses moved," consignor Eddie Woods said. "It isn't great for everybody, but we'd be way worse off if we didn't have this sale and no horses got moved. What would we do with them all? We don't know what the future holds for us going forward or when the next sale will be. It's a gray area. So the fact that we are able to get a few done here is great." 

"The sale overall, I would say we were all tied on for worse," said Nick de Meric of de Meric Sales. "There are people here trying to fill orders and buy horses, and I think we have to be grateful for that in the current climate. All things considered, I think we're very grateful that we had this sale and that we've been able to move some inventory." 

Topping the sale Tuesday was Hip 237, a $650,000 American Pharoah  filly out of the Songandaprayer mare Megalicious. Consigned by Wavertree Stables, agent, and purchased by agents on behalf of Katsumi Yoshida, the filly is a half sister to stakes-placed My Sweet Stella. 

Despite a general reticence to travel, the Japanese contingent remained active at the upper end of the market through the first session. A group of several agents representing Yoshida also signed the ticket on Hip 65, a $420,000 Medaglia d'Oro  colt from the consignment of Top Line Sales, agent. 

"I was very nervous bringing that horse up here," said Torie Gladwell of Top Line Sales. "He's been extremely popular. We were really afraid of the market and watching what was going to happen. But watching closely, every good horse that has been brought up here has pretty much sold, so that gave us some confidence. The breeder and the partners will be very happy that the horse has sold."

Bred in Kentucky by Fred Hertrich, Hip 65 is out of the Dansili mare Flagstaff and from the extended family of Prix de la Foret (G1) winner Etoile Montante and grade 2-placed Starformer. 

"The Japanese traveled a long way, and they've been here and attended the breeze show," OBS director of sales Tod Wojciechowski said. "They were concerned and had to deal with this (COVID-19) in their home country as well. They have been able to buy nice horses out of here like Cafe Pharoah last year. They've been fortunate and have done a good job of getting some very nice horses out of the March sale. I wasn't surprised to see them active." 

With 10 horses sold from 12 offered, Wavertree Stables ended the day as the top consignor. Gross receipts for its horses were tallied at $2.06 million. 

"It wasn't all pretty, and a lot of it was just getting our money back and getting out of Dodge," said Ciaran Dunne of Wavertree. "But we've been doing this a long time, and there haven't been many easy days. I'm not sure this will even rank up there with some of the hardest. There was plenty of activity around the barns. The vetting was good. We were disappointed in a spot here and there, but there have been plenty of times where we've been disappointed before and when there were no excuses." 

Four horses sold by Wavertree cracked the top 10, including Hip 319, an American Pharoah colt out of the Doc's Leader mare Please Sign In. Bred in Kentucky by Hurstland Farm and William Kartozian, the colt was purchased by John Kimmel, agent, for $320,000.

"There were a couple 'Pharoahs' in the sale," Kimmel said. "Actually, I had the half sister to (Hip) 237. I'm a big fan of the stallion. I thought this was a horse that is about half done. He's going to improve. He's a horse that's got some family, the stallion's starting to prove himself, and we think he's going to continue to improve. I think it was pretty good value for $320,000, compared to some of these other ones, because he's actually got an aptitude to run two turns and be a nice 3-year-old. 

"Some of them are just real quick, and I think the rest of the crop catches up to them pretty soon. The seller, Ciaran Dunne, was very complimentary of the horse's mental attitude, and it's a great mover. I got a lot of confidence in that because there are plenty of horses that come in here that might look good superficially, but once you get to pushing on them, they're not the horse that you thought you bought. I feel like we got a horse that's going to have a decent future."

Wavertree also commanded $320,000 for Hip 226, a Frankel filly purchased by Team Casse, agent. Bred in Ireland by Coolmore, the filly is out of the Clodovil mare Manderley and is from the female family of group 2 winner Gregorian and stakes winner Naval Warfare. 

"(I liked) the individual, the sire, and the pedigree," Justin Casse said. "She's a lovely filly, stood over a good amount of ground. Nice European family. Frankel's obviously one of the best sires in the world. I know the seller was quite high on her, so that meant a lot to us as well."

Hip 226 was one of only two purchases made by Casse, who said the market felt off in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bloodstock agent went to $170,000 for Hip 85, an Upstart  colt consigned by Pick View, agent, out of the Yankee Gentleman mare Gentleman's Joy. 

"I'd say it's somewhat what we expected regarding the number of horses sold," Casse said. "I think they're maybe off of the top end by about 30%, but still I know we have to have the horse sale because people need income. I think everybody's expectations were really realistic heading in."

With no standard of comparison for sales impacted by the spread of a worldwide pandemic, Wojciechowski said he was pleased that the sale went off without incident and held high hopes that sales would continue to improve on Day 2. 

"We certainly can't draw any comparisons to other sales because we operated under unprecedented circumstances," Wojciechowski said. "Certainly, the external forces that we're dealing with have an effect. It's unrealistic to think the status of the world right now has no effect. We're pleased to even hold the sale and allow some horses to be traded. That being said, there were some nice horses that sold well. I think the buyers and traders showed a resiliency, while at the same time we're all concerned thinking about the circumstances we're currently dealing with. 

"We try to balance between understanding there were a number of buyers and sellers that were happy that we moved forward with the sale, and, quite frankly, the horses and people have been on the grounds for a while, and stopping the sale may have been like shutting the barn door once the horse is already out. We took the extra sanitary steps and tried to warn people to be cautious and be diligent about thinking about where they are and if they didn't need to be here, not to come. We beefed up our phone bidding process and saw a pickup in that. I think people appreciated that if they weren't willing to travel or able to travel, they were able to participate."