$300k session topper

A $300,000 Halo's Image colt was the session-topper at Tuesday's opener for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March select 2-year-old sale in Florida. Trainer Michael Machowsky, acting as agent, signed the ticket.

The session, the first of two, sold 98 lots for gross receipts of $6,255,000, down 9 percent from last year, when 108 horses sold for $6,876,500. Average rose slightly this year, climbing just $156 to $63,827.

Consigned by Bridlewood Farm, the $300,000 Halo's Image colt is out of Pleasant Dixie, an unraced Dixieland Band mare, and hails from the family of multiple Grade 1 winner Jolie's Halo. His dam, Pleasant Dixie, is a daughter of stakes winner Pleasant Jolie, who finished second in the Grade 3 Arlington Matron Handicap and is a half-sister to Jolie's Halo, among other stakes winners.

Later, a colt from the first crop of 1997 Horse of the Year Favorite Trick was bought for $250,000 by David Shimmon's Fog City Stable.

Equine Legacy Farm, agent, sold the colt, who is out of the stakes-placed Nasty and Bold mare So Brash. Last year, the colt brought $35,000 at the Keeneland September yearling auction, where Dry Creek Stables was listed as buyer.

A colt from the first crop by Grade 1 winner Formal Gold brought $220,000, the third highest price. Flying Zee Stable purchased the colt, who is out of Rosedon (by Vice Regent) and thus is a half-brother to Canadian Horse of the Year Benburb and stakes winner Lady Aloma. Robert Scanlon, agent, sold the colt, who previously was a $25,000 Keeneland September yearling last year, when Bobby Hurley's Devil Eleven Stable signed for him.

The afternoon's top-priced filly was Hip No. 74, a $210,000 daughter of Capote and the Cure the Blues mare Patticake Blues. Dam of the winners Evening News and Fastasucan, Patticake Blues is a half-sister to four stakes winners, including Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed Silver Fox.

OBS posts reserve prices

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company has posted reserve prices for all juveniles set to sell at the OBS-hosted Adena Springs 2-year-old sale on March 21. The one-day auction will take place at Adena Springs South, the Ocala, Fla., division of Frank Stronach's international breeding operation. The highest reserve is $95,000 for a Lit de Justice colt out of Grade 1 winner Vivid Angel (Septieme Ciel). Sellers rarely announce reserves, but Adena officials have said the operation is publishing them as a service to bidders.