OBS mixed sale posts substantial gains all around

The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s two-day fall mixed sale ended Wednesday with gains overall after the consignor-preferred session’s hefty increases offset slow selling at the open session.
The Ocala, Fla., sale sold 346 horses over the two days for $3,463,900, a 48-percent jump from last year’s combined $2,345,700 for 300 horses. The two-day average price climbed 28 percent, from $7,819 last season to $10,011, and the $5,000 median this year was up 19 percent from last year’s figure of $4,200.
Wednesday’s open session sold 180 horses for $863,700, down from the $877,800 gross for 168 horses last year. The Day 2 average price was $4,798, down from $5,225 last year, and the median fell from $3,000 to $2,700. The buy-backs dropped, too, however, falling to 35 percent from last season’s 41 percent.
The open session’s top-priced horse was Sweet Baby Jane, a $35,000 Kingmambo mare that Off The Hook, agent, bought form Ramsey Farm. The 11-year-old unraced mare was not pregnant.
The sale-topper, sold at Tuesday’s consignor-preferred session, was the $250,000 Storm Cat daughter Zehoorr, bought by Rustlewood Farm. Barbara and Francis Vanlangendonck’s Summerfield agency consigned the 5-year-old mare, who was in foal to Tiznow and is out of the Grade 1 winner Nany’s Sweep. Zehoorr, a half-sister to Grade 3 winner She’s Indy Money, was part of the Westbury Stables dispersal, which produced several high-priced mares that helped lift the auction’s bottom line.
The consignor-preferred session sold 163 horses for a total of $2,572,600 as compared with a 2009 opening-day gross of $1,467,900 for 132 horses. The average price jumped 42 percent, from $11,120 last year to $15,783 this season, and median price climbed 25 percent, from $6,000 in 2009 to $7,500. Buybacks at the opening session decreased from last year’s figure of 40 percent to 36 percent in 2010.