OBS begins 50th anniversary season with March sale

The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. launches its 50th anniversary 2-year-old sales season with its March auction, which kicks off the juvenile sales season in North America. Over the course of the season, OBS will offer the bulk of the commercial crop, starting with a sale that is coming off a particularly successful renewal.

OBS, founded in 1974, conducted its first 2-year-old sale in January 1975. That auction traded 187 juveniles for a gross of $2,497,600. Through the evolution of the sales market, OBS has remained a leader in this segment while also offering annual yearling and breeding stock sales. OBS will offer more 2-year-olds than any other company in North America across three sales.

This week’s March sale has 814 juveniles cataloged to sell from March 11-13. It will be followed on the calendar by the OBS spring sale of 2-year-olds in training, from April 15-18, and the OBS June sale of 2-year-olds and horses of racing age, from June 17-19.

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Graduates of OBS sales have a history at the most elite levels of the sport, led by Hall of Famers Silver Charm, a 1996 OBS spring graduate; Skip Away, a 1995 graduate of a former OBS February sale; and Xtra Heat, a 1999 OBS yearling graduate.

According to company statistics, in the last half-century OBS sales have produced 33 Eclipse Award champions, 27 Breeders’ Cup winners, three Kentucky Derby winners, three Preakness Stakes winners, and two Kentucky Oaks winners. Silver Charm, of course, was a dual classic winner and 3-year-old champion in 1997.

It remains to be seen if the 2024 OBS March sale will add to the company’s history of success, but the juveniles who emerged from that auction performed well, and turn the corner into their 3-year-old season as a strong group. A pair of Grade 1 winners have already emerged from the graduates in Del Mar Futurity winner Gaming (purchased for $250,000 in March) and Frizette winner Scottish Lassie ($85,000).

Gaming, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile runner-up and a divisional Eclipse Award finalist, is likely bound for the upcoming Virginia Derby as he seeks to earn his way into the Kentucky Derby. The 2024 March sale also produced Sandman ($1.2 million), who is multiple graded stakes-placed and pointing toward the Arkansas Derby. Other graduates include graded stakes winners Nooni ($1.8 million) and Maysam ($500,000) and Grade 1-placed Ferocious ($1.3 million, 2024).

This year’s group of OBS March entrants were given a chance to tout themselves during the under-tack preview show taking place March 6-8 on the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack. The breeze show had originally been scheduled to begin a day earlier, but was condensed from four days to three due to weather.

At press time, following the first of the three sessions, a trio of colts by Charlatan, Maclean’s Music, and Maxfield had tied for the fastest furlong. Meanwhile, a filly by Connect and a colt by Fog of War were tied for the fastest quarter-mile at 20 4/5 seconds. Charlatan and Maxfield are part of this year’s freshman sire class, and both were well-received with their first commercial offerings last year, siring multiple seven-figure yearlings.

“We’ve got a big dose of Charlatans on the farm, and they all train well, they’re forward,” said Jimbo Gladwell of Top Line Sales. “I can’t say enough good things about him.”

Charlatan is among the freshman sires with the most 2-year-olds cataloged for this first sale of the season, with 23 on offer. Only Yaupon, with 26, has more.

Among the other stallions represented in the OBS March catalog are Into Mischief (five in catalog), Gun Runner (eight), and Justify (six), the top three on the North American general sire list in 2024.

Into Mischief – whose cataloged lots at this sale include a colt out of champion Lady Eli – led the sire list for the sixth straight year in 2024, the most consecutive titles since the great Bold Ruler more than a half century ago. Fittingly, Into Mischief, a $180,000 purchase in 2007, is also an OBS March graduate – adding to the company’s impressive history.

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