Strong Finish at March OBS Sale

Business picked up during the second and final session of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March select sale of 2-year-olds in training, with three horses, including a $925,000 Flatter   colt, bringing amounts that exceeded the opening session’s top price of $400,000 and another equaling it.

The auction finished March 16 in Central Florida with an average price that was only 1.5% below last year’s result, but the median price dropped 6.7%. Meanwhile, the number of horses sold increased 46.1% while the gross revenue rose 43.9%.

The buy-back rate was 24%, down from 29.5% in 2010. Consignors scratched 169 horses, or 34.5%, of the 490 cataloged.

“It wasn’t a great sale by any means, and I don’t know that I could call it good,” said consignor Tony Bowling of All In Sales. “But it was a whole lot better than it was down south (at the Fasig-Tipton Florida select juvenile auction, where more than 40% of the 2-year-olds offered failed to find new homes). At least people came here to buy usable horses and not just the top ones. I was tickled just to see people buying $50,000, $60,000, $80,000, and $100,000 horses. To me, this is a lot more of a working man’s sale and a horse trainer’s sale instead of just an elite sale.”