$750,000 Ghostzapper colt tops Day 1 at OBS spring juvenile sale

A Ghostzapper colt sold for $750,000 to lead the opening session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s postponed spring sale of 2-year-olds in training, as the North American juvenile sale season resumed with encouraging results.

The OBS sale was originally scheduled for April, but was postponed, along with other sales around the country, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Thoroughbred market tends to respond to economic uncertainty with restraint – as was seen during the only juvenile sale previously held this year, the OBS March auction, which struggled as the pandemic caused the stock market to plummet.

All eyes were on OBS spring, considered the company's flagship sale, as it restarted the marketplace as the first live public Thoroughbred auction held in the country in more than two months, and the opening session delivered some welcome signs. Although the buyback rate did rise, the session posted only moderate declines in the average and median sale prices from the comparable opening session of 2019.

OBS reported 133 horses sold, including private sales, in Tuesday’s first of four sessions for gross receipts of $12,166,500. In last year's corresponding opening session, 166 horses sold totaled $15,346,000. The average price checked in at $91,477, compared to $92,446 in 2019, ticking downward just 1 percent. The median price was $50,000, a drop of 9 percent from $55,000.

The buyback percentage was 31 percent, compared to 21 percent.

The session-topping Ghostzapper colt, who was one of the final hips through the ring as a supplemental entry, sold to bloodstock agent Ben McElroy, on behalf of owner Arman Shah. The colt, who was consigned by Sequel Bloodstock, as agent, breezed a furlong in 9 4/5 seconds during last week's under-tack show on the Ocala Training Center's Safetrack surface. That was one of 15 tied for the second-fastest work at the distance.

The colt is out of the placed Roberta Turner, who has not yet produced a starter. The Smart Strike mare is a half-sister to Grade 3-placed stakes winner Foxy Danseur, the dam of Grade 3 winner Ever So Clever and stakes-placed Miss Centerfold and Tathqeef. Foxy Danseur and Roberta Turner also are half-sisters to stakes-placed Elle a Gent. Their granddam is Grade 3 winner In Conference, and their great-granddam is Grade 1 winner Personal Business.

A filly by reigning leading sire Into Mischief sold to Spendthrift Farm and a colt by European champion juvenile and freshman sire Air Force Blue sold to Justin Casse, as agent for M.V. Magnier, to tie for the second-highest price of the session, each bringing $400,000.

For hip-by-hip results, click here.