OBS June sale a final 2-year-old buying opportunity

The formal 2-year-old sale season in North America closes with this week’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s June sale of 2-year-olds in training and horses of racing age.

Although market opportunities still exist for individual juveniles in upcoming horses of racing age sales, or the digital sales that have begun to proliferate the marketplace, this auction – taking place over three sessions, beginning Tuesday – is the final major opportunity to secure a 2-year-old at public auction for this racing season. Consignors thus hope a sense of urgency helps spark activity.

“They’re running out of horses, so if you want one, you’ve got to figure it out,” said consignor Kevin McKathan. “What happens in the market, I think, is people go to the first sale, and everyone’s like, ‘I’m going to buy some horses,’ and they get outbid. And then they say, ‘Well, I’ll come back and hit them in April,’ and they get outbid. It takes them about halfway through April to understand they’ve got to pay up if they want to buy them.”

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Following a set of supplemental entries released on Thursday, the sales catalog numbered 1,130 horses. The vast majority of those – 1,112 – are juveniles. Although most of those are still unraced, a pair of fillies still set to go through the ring after early outs do have racing experience. Florida-bred Luna West, by Florida resident Gone Astray, was an upset winner of her debut on April 7 at Gulfstream Park, edging clear by a half-length in the 4 1/2-furlong race. Alternate Rock, a Florida-born daughter of Alternation, was third on debut going five furlongs on May 19 at Gulfstream.

For horses with racing experience, under-tack preview shows are not the yardstick that they represent for unraced and untried stock. Thus, Luna West merely galloped before prospective buyers during her slot in the breeze show, conducted May 30 through June 4 on the Ocala Training Center’s all-weather Safetrack surface. At press time, Alternate Rock’s slot in the show had not yet taken place.

Through four of six breeze-show sessions, a filly by the successful late sire Flatter held the bullet work for the traditional furlong distance, zipping the distance in 9 4/5 seconds. Behind her, a logjam of 33 juveniles were tied for the second-fastest furlong at 10 seconds flat.

The bullet-working filly by Flatter, an A.P. Indy horse who died in May, is consigned by bloodstock agent Julie Davies, who purchased her as a pinhook prospect for $95,000 out of the Keeneland September yearling sale. She is out of the unraced Candy Ride mare Wicked Ride, dam of three winners from four starters. Two of those winners are by stallions from the A.P. Indy sireline.

Wicked Ride is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner and stakes producer Wickedly Perfect, by Flatter’s full brother Congrats. Wicked Ride is also a half-sister to stakes winner Wicked Mizz and to Grade 2-placed Ash Zee. Both have produced stakes performers, as has another sister, Wickedly Smart.

More juveniles are working a slightly longer distance at this point in the season. Among juveniles working a quarter-mile, a Florida-bred filly by Army Mule worked in 20 2/5 seconds to hold the best time through four of six sessions. A filly by Collected was holding sole second place behind her at 20 4/5 seconds. Both Army Mule and Collected are freshman sires of 2022.

The Army Mule filly, consigned by Fast Horses, as agent, is out of the unraced Super Saver mare Super Holiday, a half-sister to stakes-placed Charming She Is.

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A handful of juveniles have also worked three furlongs, with a colt by Constitution currently holding the bullet, at 33 1/5 seconds for Blue River Bloodstock, as agent.

At last year’s three-day OBS June sale, the company reported 560 juveniles sold – figures for the small horses of racing age section were counted separately – for gross receipts of $24,492,950, establishing a record gross by surpassing the prior mark of $23,608,500 in 2015. Led by a $475,000 Practical Joke filly, the cumulative average price was $43,737, surpassing the previous high-water mark of $39,612, also from 2015. The median finished at a record-equaling $20,000.

Although this year’s sale will be hard-pressed to match the record edition, consignors say activity is strong at the top of the marketplace.

“I think the market’s strong for perceived quality,” Jimbo Gladwell of Top Line Sales said. “When you jump through the hoops, you vet good, you do the work, and have a pretty horse on the end of the shank, then people are willing to give a lot more money for them than in years past, and they just seem to stack up on the same horses. The ones that make the cut and that they think are the good ones, they will really step in there and take a big swing at them.”