Colt leads OBS at $400K

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's selected 2-year-old auction at Calder Race Course in Miami began the juvenile sale season Tuesday. Despite a spate of horses listed as not sound, the market appeared healthy in the early going, with a $400,000 session-leader as of 5 p.m.

That price, for a Doneraile Court colt, was just short of last year's top price of $500,000. And though it was not close to the 2001 OBS Calder record of $900,000 for Max's Buddy, the Doneraile Court colt's sale price suggested that major money is still on hand in the select 2-year-old market.

John Ferguson, the agent for Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum and the Maktoum family's Godolphin stable, signed for the 2003 session leader. The colt is from the first crop by Doneraile Court and is out of the Copelan mare Future Guest. Breeders Doug Arnold, who stands Doneraile Court at his Buck Pond Farm in Kentucky, and Dr. Roy Sadovsky sold the colt as a yearling for $60,000 at the 2002 Fasig-Tipton July auction.

Murray Smith, agent, consigned the dark bay or brown colt to the OBS-at-Calder sale.

The second most expensive lot as of 5 p.m. was Hip No. 108, a $360,000 Silver Charm colt that Mike Gill, an active bidder and buyer throughout the session, bought from Hartley/deRenzo Thoroughbreds, agent. The gray or roan colt was among the fastest workers at the auction's under-tack preview on Jan. 27, breezing an eighth of a mile in 10 seconds. The colt is out of the Storm Bird mare Secret Harbor, making him a half-brother to stakes winner Concealed City.

The one-day auction, which last year posted a record average of $114,395, was set to continue into the early evening.