The North American 2-year-old sale season gets away from the pole with the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s March sale, which looks to build off a strong 2022 edition. A total of 833 juveniles are cataloged for the three-day sale, which runs Monday through Wednesday. The sale is preceded by a four-day under-tack preview show conducted on the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack. Through three sessions, a colt from the second crop of Good Magic held the fastest furlong, the traditional yardstick for these sales, working in 9 3/5 seconds. Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner and Eclipse Award champion Good Magic was last year’s second-leading freshman sire by earnings, and is the sire of Grade 1 winner Blazing Sevens; graded stakes winners Curly Jack, Dubyuhnell, Reincarnate, and Vegas Magic; and stakes winners Bat Flip and How Did He Do That. His bullet-working colt, consigned by Top Line Sales, as agent, is out of the winning Uncle Mo mare Hoppa. Grade 1/Group 1 winners Hit the Road, Rollout the Carpet, and War Command appear on the catalog page. :: DRF BREEDING LIVE: Real-time coverage of breeding and sales Through three sessions, 29 juveniles were tied for the next-fastest furlong at 9 4/5 seconds, including several by freshman sires. Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner and Eclipse Award champion Mitole and graded stakes-winning juvenile Maximus Mischief were each represented by two first-crop juveniles in that group, along with one each by fellow freshmen Flameaway, Omaha Beach, St Patrick’s Day, and Vino Rosso. Among the smaller group of juveniles who worked a quarter-mile, a Florida-bred colt from the second crop of state sire Bucchero held the fastest time of 20 3/5 seconds. Last year’s OBS March sale roared out of the gate with across-the-board gains in major economic categories. A $1.2 million More Than Ready colt led a quartet of seven-figure lots as 374 horses sold for total gross receipts of $49,371,000. The average price was $132,008, a 13 percent jump from 2021’s pandemic-recovering marketplace. The median rose 25 percent, finishing at $75,000. The sale also posted an improved buyback rate, finishing at 13 percent compared to a cumulative 16 percent in 2021. The median and buyback rate are considered key figures in illustrating market health and activity. While the average price can be largely influenced by the top end of the market – the 2021 March sale did not produce any seven-figure horses, compared to four in 2022 – the median and buyback rate illustrate the health of a wide swath of the marketplace. :: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.