First Heritage Place Thoroughbred sale in more than 20 years set for Saturday in Oklahoma

Heritage Place in Oklahoma City will conduct its first straight Thoroughbred sale in more than 20 years on Saturday. The auction house that caters to Quarter Horses has cataloged 177 breeding and racing prospects for its Thoroughbred sale, plus four supplemental entries. The auction will begin at 11 a.m. Central.

“We used to have a straight Thoroughbred auction, sometimes more than one a year, so we’re kind of revamping that with this sale,” said Spence Kidney, director of operations for Heritage Place. “We do plan to make it an annual event. We have aspirations to grow this into a large event.”

Kidney said entries for the sale fell in line with the 150 to 200 horses expected. The catalog features stallions, broodmares, yearlings, and horses of racing age. The list of consignors includes New Mexico operations Double Eagle Ranch and Buena Suerte Equine and Oklahoma standards Lazy E Ranch and JEH Stallion Station.

The sale falls on the closing weekend of Remington Park, which wraps up its meet Sunday.

Kidney said the Thoroughbred Racing Association of Oklahoma, which represents the state’s horsemen, this past year contacted Heritage Place about doing a Thoroughbred auction. It was a topic Heritage Place had debated in the past, but the timing was not right, Kidney said. He said the climate has since changed in Oklahoma.

“We received a call from TRAO,” Kidney said, “and they said, ‘We think it’s time to try this because the Oklahoma-bred program is very strong, and our racing is strong at Remington Park.’ ”

Heritage Place conducted its first auction in 1978.