OBS Suceeds as One-Day Track Operator

For 364 days a year, management and staff at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. operates a sales company in central Florida.

One day of the year, though, they become racetrack operators, offering races for Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses competing over the all-weather track at the company's sale headquarters in Ocala, Fla.

If the 28th renewal of the Championship races Jan. 24 preceded the sales company's annual January mixed sale that began Jan. 25 and concludes Jan. 26.

Attracted by abundant sunshine and temperatures in the low 70s, as well as a program that featured seven Thoroughbred stakes and seven Quarter Horse races, the crowd estimated at 3,500 packed into the metal bleachers and surrounding park-like area. Owners and trainers of the racehorses, including nationally prominent conditioners Mark Casse, Rusty Arnold, and Nick Gonzalez, dined and watched from the enclosed dining room on the second floor of the OBS building that is normally used for simulcasting and a comedy club.

The demographics were the kind any racetrack would like for a weekday racing card, with many families, young adults, and an array of horse industry professionals, many from Kentucky and the East Coast.

In addition to OBS president Tom Ventura and publicity director Jay Friedman, trophies to Thoroughbred stakes winners were presented by Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero and Claiborne Farm's Walker Hancock.

All seven of the Quarter Horse races—on the card because OBS conducts racing under a Quarter Horse license—and the Championship sprint for 3-year-old Thoroughbred fillies were pari-mutuel affairs. There was no wagering on the three other Thoroughbred events, restricted to horses that had gone through the OBS sales ring.

"It was difficult logistically to pull it all together for one day," Ventura said. "So we have 364 days to forget what we did and then get it altogether again next year."

While the Championship races have always been held in conjunction with an OBS sale, it has been only recently that the day coincided with the mixed sale, a combination that seems to work.

"Ocala has a lot of horse activity going on at this time of the year, so it works out well," Ventura said.

By offering the races on either a Monday or Tuesday, OBS is able to attract top talent, such as some of America's leading jockeys, including John Velazquez and Julien Leparoux, and experienced gate personnel and racing officials.

In the co-featured $100,000 Championship race for colts and geldings, Velazquez booted home Master Plan to an impressive victory that his connections—owners Al Shaqab Racing, WinStar, and China Horse Club—hope get the $850,000 OBS sale graduate on the road to the Triple Crown.

MITCHELL: Master Plan Impresses in OBS Championship Stakes

"I think there were some stars in the making," Ventura said of the equine participants. "I think Master Plan has a good future ahead of him."