$135K Bolt d'Oro filly top opening session of OBS October yearling sale

A $135,000 filly by young sire Bolt d'Oro led three six-figure sales in a selective marketplace as the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s October yearling sale opened on Tuesday.

OBS reported that 175 horses sold on Tuesday, in the first of two sessions at this sale, for gross receipts of $3,308,500. True session-to-session and year-to-year comparisons for this sale will be difficult. Last year, OBS conducted the October yearling sale with both a designated selected and open session and reported the figures for each as a separate sale. Both sessions of this year's sale are designated as open sessions.

Tuesday's average sale price was $18,906, while the median was $12,000. In last year's open session, the second of two days at the sale, the average was $17,062 and the median was $13,000.

This year's yearling marketplace has been strong at the upper end but very selective, and that polarization was seen at OBS, with a 42 percent buyback rate on Tuesday. Last year's buyback rate in the open session was 30 percent.

The session-topping Bolt d'Oro filly, one of the final horses through the ring as a supplemental entry, was purchased by de Meric Sales, from the consignment of Kaizen Sales, as agent. This is the third crop for Bolt d'Oro, last year's leading freshman sire by earnings. He is the sire of four graded stakes winners, including Grade 1 winner Tamara.

The filly, an April foal, is out of the winning Arch mare Final Reward, whose first foal, the winning filly Yatta, recently gave this pedigree an update by finishing third in the Selima Stakes on Sept. 30 at Laurel.

Final Reward is out of stakes producer Last Kitten, a full sister to Grade 1 winner Precious Kitten and a half-sister to champion and leading sire Kitten's Joy. This is also the family of champion Dreaming of Anna and Grade 1 winner Down the Aisle, among other prominent stakes winners.

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