OBS sale prices cool off on Day 2

One day after a $900,000 Yes It's True colt lit up the price board and buybacks plummeted, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March select juvenile sale continued Wednesday with a more modest early session-leader.

Prices appeared milder at Wednesday's second and final session. By 5:15 p.m. Eastern, with about 60 horses remaining in the catalog, the afternoon's highest price was the $320,000 that David Clark's Iron Horse Racing paid to acquire a Salt Lake colt from the Eisaman Equine agency. The colt is out of the 1995 Assiniboia Oaks winner Slinkylady, a daughter of What a Hoist. The session-leading colt, who sold as Hip No. 519, is a full brother to Lake Lady. That filly won a pair of Fair Grounds stakes, the Tiffany Lass and the Thelma, in 2002 and placed in the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks and Fantasy Stakes the same season. Slinkylady's only other starter so far, a Tour d'Or gelding named Pricedale Kid, also is a winner.

As of 5:15, Hip No. 519 was the only horse to bring more than $300,000 on Wednesday.

Consignor Eisaman Equine also consigned Tuesday's session-topping $900,000 Yes It's True colt. Sheikh Mohammed al Maktoum's Darley organization purchased the bay colt, a son of Kit Kat Kitty and one of the fastest performers at the OBS under-tack shows. Sold as Hip No. 264, the colt breezed a quarter-mile in 21.20 seconds in his first under-tack preview, then came back to work an eighth-mile in 10.40 seconds.

The colt's dam, Kit Kat Kitty, is a winner by Pentelicus and a half-sister to the stakes-placed runner Call Fiorello.

Sheikh Mohammed's $900,000 purchase was one of seven 2-year-olds to bring more than $300,000 at the opener. Fourteen horses fetched bids of $200,000 or more, another sign of strength in the select 2-year-old marketplace.

Significantly, the OBS March opening session posted the select season's lowest buyback rate to date at 23 percent. That was down from 32 percent last year. Gross also improved, with 188 lots bringing in $14,985,000, up sharply from last year's $11,028,000 for 127 horses.

But the news wasn't all good for the auction. The opening-day average price fell 8 percent, from $86,835 to $79,707, and median dropped 17 percent, from $60,000 to $50,000.