Median up at Ocala select sale

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s August select yearling sale didn't match last year's records for gross and average, but it did set a new mark for median Monday despite a general slowdown in the yearling marketplace.

The auction in Ocala, Fla., sold 167 yearlings for gross receipts of $9,679,500, down 7 percent from last year's total of $10,427,500 for 176 horses; average also fell 2 percent to $57,961. But the 2007 median of $50,000 easily coasted past the record of $45,000 set in 2004 and equaled last season.

The buy-back rate at Monday's select session dropped despite the declines, falling from 32 percent last year to 25 percent.

Monday's session-topper was a $210,000 Cape Canaveral colt out of Caveat Apt, by Chief's Crown. Trainer Ken McPeek, agent, bought the chestnut colt, a half-brother to graded winner Crowned Dancer.

The one-day select session opened a weeklong auction at the OBS facility in Ocala. Four open sessions began Tuesday, with $75,000 the early top price. That was what agent P.A. Everard paid for Hip No. 384, a Mizzen Mast colt out of the Mt. Livermore mare Organ Transplant. Country Road Farm consigned the bay colt, who is from the family of Grade 3 winner Perfect Cat.

The auction was to continue through Friday.