OBS sale puts cap on season

The North American juvenile sale season comes to an end where it began, although later than usual, as the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. hosts the July sale of 2-year-olds and horses of racing age.

The three-session sale, which begins Tuesday, was pushed back from its original June dates due to the coronavirus pandemic, part of a domino effect as OBS shifted its spring sale, typically set for April, to June. The catalog numbers 1,114 hips, with the vast majority of the sale dedicated to 2-year-olds. There are 15 horses of racing age, interestingly, all 3-year-olds, cataloged.

This sizable contingent of horses appears before a marketplace that will feel urgency on both sides. With only four physical sales dedicated to juveniles held in North America this season, compared to seven in 2019, buyers may still be competing to fill their orders, and consignors will be eager to take the final opportunity to move their stock.

One constant during this unusual sale season has been the commercial popularity of Not This Time, one of the early leaders of the freshman sire class. The stallion could have another solid sale at OBS; his 16 first-crop juveniles include a filly who had worked the sole fastest furlong through four of six sessions of the under-tack preview show.

Not This Time’s filly worked her furlong in 9 4/5 seconds on the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack surface, edging out 19 other juveniles who were tied at 10 seconds flat through four sessions. The New York-bred filly, a May foal, is consigned by de Meric Sales, as agent, and is from the immediate family of multiple Grade 1 winner Exotic Wood.

Not This Time, a Grade 3 winner as a juvenile, averaged $63,746 from 68 first-crop yearlings sold at public auction last year, more than four times their conception stud fee of $15,000 at Taylor Made Farm. He is averaging $193,690 from 29 juveniles sold this year, led by a $1.35 million filly who topped the OBS spring sale, and a $650,000 colt who was the third-highest price at the FasigTipton Midlantic sale.

The fastest quarter-mile through four sessions of the OBS June breeze show belonged to a Half Ours colt, who worked in 20 1/5 seconds for consignor Blue River Bloodstock, as agent.

Last year’s OBS June sale was led by an Into Mischief filly who fetched a sale-record $900,000. She led 609 sold for $21,493,300, resulting in an average price of $35,293, up 9 percent compared to 2018. The median was $17,000, up 13 percent from the year prior. The buyback rate improved slightly, to 19 percent from 20 percent.