OBS sale: More horses, more gains

The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s April 2-year-old auction continued its pattern of gains Wednesday as the third session produced an 8 percent increase in average price and an 11 percent upswing in median.

A significantly larger number of horses sold helped boost gross by 30 percent. At Wednesday’s session, 207 horses grossed $6,054,200, up from the total for 172 horses at last year’s corresponding session. Average price rose from $27,087 in 2010 to $29,247, and median climbed from last year’s $18,000 to $20,000. Buybacks also dropped from 29 percent in 2010 to 23 percent.

The session also got a push from the highest price for a juvenile so far after three days’ selling when Mark Casse, agent, went to $320,000 for a filly from Corinthian’s first crop. The bay filly is the first foal out of the Smoke Glacken stakes winner Glacken’s Mark. She had worked a quarter-mile in 21.2 seconds at the sale’s under-tack preview last week.

The highest price for a colt was the $170,000 EQB agent Patrice Miller paid for a son of Rock Hard Ten and Cute Cakes. Eddie Woods, agent, consigned the colt as Hip No. 710. The dark bay or brown colt worked an eighth-mile in 10.2 seconds at the April 14 under-tack preview.

The OBS April auction was to continue through April 21 at the OBS facility in Ocala. Sessions begin daily at 10:30 a.m.

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