Busy OBS juvenile sale could go down as 'best ever'

Jammed parking lots and heavy pedestrian traffic in and around the sales barns indicated early on that business would not be tailing off at the Ocala Breeders' spring sale of 2-year-olds in training. This was the first non-selected sale of 2-year-olds in training on the Florida calendar and is ordinarily a good barometer of the middle market. With three of the sale's four days complete through Thursday, the 2006 OBS spring sale should go in the books as "the best ever," according to the OBS general manager and sales director Tom Ventura.

The sale was strong through all levels. Korean buyers were busy in the opening session. Doing business as Triple Crown Trading, the Korean buyers bought 13 lots for prices ranging from $11,000 to $27,000.

FNDCC is an abbreviation for an agency purchasing on behalf of buyers from the Dominican Republic. Through the first three days of sales, the agency had purchased 22 lots for $108,000.

Mike Sherman, owner of Farnsworth Farms, was active both as a seller and a buyer.

"Farnsworth Farms, as a family business, is going out of business, but I am not," Sherman said.

The April sale is the last 2-year-old sale that will offer Farnsworth Farms homebreds. Sherman and his longtime partner Bill Condren bought three horses out of the final Farnsworth Farms consignment, but were outbid for a fourth horse.

"There's no monkey business here," Sherman said. "I am buying from the family-owned Farnsworth Farms for myself and for the Sherman-Condren partnership. The horses we buy will go to my stable at Calder Race Course, and if they become prime-time players, they will be transferred to the stable of Nick Zito in New York."

When asked about the sale of the Farnsworth Farms property, Sherman said that there is a deal in the making and that only a few details need to be resolved. When asked if this meant that Farnsworth Farms was going to enter a new phase as a commercial operation, he said that the name might be the same, but there will be a different business model.

Love of game pulls Seremba back in

Fifty years ago, one of the more formidable racing stables on the New England circuit was the Seremba family's Circle Y Stable, a Canadian-based farm. Frank Seremba was the trainer, and the Y in the stable name was for his wife, Yolande. There were six New England racetracks in operation in the 1960's, and the Circle Y Stable raced and made its mark at all of them.

The Seremba family called it quits a few years ago and settled down near Tampa Bay Downs. So, it came as a surprise to see Frank Seremba's name alongside the $20,000 purchase of Hip No. 607, a colt by Honor Glide out of the mare Cremiest, by Regal and Royal.

"We bred the dam and the second dam," said Seremba.

When asked if this purchase marked the return of the Seremba family to racing, he said: "Got to do something. It's in our blood."

Sweetsouthernsaint not going anywhere

Sweetnorthernsaint is Florida's principal hope for Saturday's Kentucky Derby. Harold Plumley, a past president of the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners Association, who raced Sweetnorthernsaint's sire, Sweetsouthernsaint, will be at Churchill Downs on Saturday to root for Sweetnorthernsaint. Plumley acknowledge that there have been inquiries regarding the purchase of Sweetsouthernsaint, an 11-year-old who stands at Ocala Stud.

"He's staying put," Plumley said.