Elusive Quality colt leads closing session of OBS winter mixed sale

A yearling colt by Elusive Quality sold for $70,000 to lead Wednesday's final session of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. winter mixed sale as the auction finished with declines in gross and average compared to 2018.

The two-day sale finished with 399 horses sold for total gross receipts of $4,497,900, a decline of 25 percent in revenues compared with 409 horses bringing $5,969,600 last year. The average was $11,273, down 23 percent from $14,596 in 2018. The median price was unchanged, at $6,000. The buyback percentage improved to 19 percent from 25 percent.

Wednesday's session of OBS January, which offered a little more than half of the catalog, was designated as the open session, following Tuesday's action, which consisted of consignor-preferred and horses of racing age sections. During the open session, 228 horses sold for a total of $1,479,800, a 10 percent decline compared with 205 horses bringing $1,636,900 in 2018's comparable session. The average price was $6,490, down 19 percent compared with $7,985 last year. The median price did rise 14 percent, to $4,000, compared with $3,500. The buyback rate was also significantly improved, finishing at 15 percent compared with 25 percent.

The session-leading Elusive Quality colt sold to de Meric Stables, as agent, from the consignment of Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck's Summerfield. This is the final crop for Elusive Quality, a world-record-setting miler and classic sire. The stallion was euthanized in March 2018 at Darley's Kentucky farm after being pensioned the prior summer; he covered 32 mares in his final season, according to The Jockey Club's Report of Mares Bred.

The colt sold Wednesday is out of the Medaglia d'Oro mare Paoletta, whose first foal Calinas Song, an Elusive Quality filly, won as a juvenile last season. Paoletta is out of Chilean Horse of the Year Val Gardena.

The overall sale topper came during Tuesday's racing age section, as Golden Notion, an unraced 3-year-old, sold for $200,000 to S B M Training and Sales, as agent, from the consignment of Woodside Ranch, as agent. The colt was the only horse to work a half-mile during Monday's under-tack preview show, breezing the distance in 44 seconds flat on the all-weather surface.

Golden Notion is by two-time Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile winner Goldencents, who finished second by earnings on the 2018 freshman sire list and had the most winners by a freshman sire. This is the first foal out of the stakes-placed Bellamy Road mare Angels Trace.

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