OBS ends 2-year-old sale season on a high note
?q=100)
The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. wrapped up the company’s 50th anniversary 2-year-old sales season, and the North American breeze-up season in general, with a flourish at its June sale.
Founded in 1974, OBS conducted its first 2-year-old sale in January 1975, trading 187 juveniles – a fraction of the some 1,500 2-year-olds it sold across three sales in 2025. Nowadays, OBS offers the bulk of the publicly available 2-year-old crop in North America while also offering annual yearling and breeding stock sales.
This season, the OBS March sale was led by a Gun Runner colt sold for a company-record $3 million. That sale kicked off the season with improved gross and average figures, just a 3 percent drop in the median, and an improved buyback rate. The company’s April sale then posted a record average, improved gross and buyback figures, and, again, a single-digit drop in the median.
Led by a $975,000 Curlin filly who established a sale-record price, the two-day OBS June sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age took place last Tuesday and Wednesday to wrap up the season, with 502 horses sold for gross receipts of $25,688,500. At last year’s sale, which was held across three sessions, 606 horses brought $22,045,800.
The cumulative average price was $51,172, not only spiking 41 percent from $36,379 at the 2024 renewal but easily besting the prior record mark of $43,433 set in 2021. The median price was $25,000, jumping 25 percent from $20,000 last year and eclipsing the prior mark of $23,500 from 2022. The buyback rate was 17 percent, compared to 19 percent in 2024.
“We certainly saw the same pattern that we saw in the 2-year-old market all year, and I’m glad that it held all the way to June,” said OBS director of sales Tod Wojciechowski. “This time of year, you worry about buyer fatigue, but a lot of that was just worry. The market proved its resiliency again. Lots of records this year – it was an excellent season. We’re grateful to the buyers that came, grateful to the consignors who bring the quality horses they bring.”
In addition to the three OBS sales, Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland each held a single brick-and-mortar sale during the 2-year-old season. Fasig-Tipton’s Midlantic sale in Timonium, Md., experienced a turbulent week due to weather and wound up with a heavily amended under-tack preview show and a marathon single-session sale. Nevertheless, the sale finished with an improved gross and record average and median figures.
Meanwhile, Keeneland conducted a single-session horses of racing age sale in April, which included a handful of raced or unraced 2-year-olds. The juvenile Tough Critic, who was supplemented to the sale after a maiden win, fetched one of the sale’s highest prices at $350,000 as the sale finished with an improved gross, average, and median, and an outstanding buyback rate of just 12 percent.
Although many consignors expressed concerns about weakness in the middle and lower marketplaces throughout the season, there was definite strength at the top of the marketplace, with 20 seven-figure juveniles sold. That included three lots each from rising star Nyquist and from the second crop of Tiz the Law, and two each for leading sires Into Mischief and Gun Runner and freshman Maxfield. Established sires Girvin, Good Magic, Quality Road, Tapit, Uncle Mo, and Violence, and freshmen Independence Hall and Yaupon each had one seven-figure horse.
“I think the appetite for a nice horse is always there and I think the good ones will sell really well,” consignor Ciaran Dunne of Wavertree Stables said. “I don’t think you can hide a good one. I think the middle and lower end of the market is going to be tough, but it’s always tough.”
The commercial community now looks ahead to July’s start of the yearling sale season, which is both influenced by, and feeds into, the 2-year-old season in an ongoing cycle.
“We’re looking forward to next year, and the yearling owners are happy to see this was a vibrant market because it will carry over,” consignor Randy Miles said. “We just need to keep it going.”
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.