OBS sale produces $650,000 First Samurai filly

The Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company pushed the ceiling up sharply Thursday as its spring 2-year-old auction sold a $650,000 First Samurai filly during its final session.

The filly was the Ocala, Fla., auction’s highest price as of 3:15 p.m. on Thursday. Donato Lanni, agent, signed the ticket for The Three Amigos. The bay filly is out of Grade 2-placed Refugee, who also is the dam of stakes-placed Profit, by Not For Love. Eddie Woods, agent, consigned the sale leader; she last went through the auction ring for $23,000 at the 2011 Keeneland September yearling sale, where Hubert Guy, agent, was the buyer.

Offered as Hip No. 929, the First Samurai filly breezed a quarter-mile in 21 seconds at the sale’s under-tack preview.

Trainer Mark Casse paid $475,000 for the auction’s highest-priced colt at that time. That was for Hip No. 967, a Broken Vow colt out of stakes-placed Runaway in Love from the Halcyon Hammock consignment. He’s from the family of Sir Shackleton and had the under-tack show’s co-fastest eighth-mile time of 9.8 seconds.

Wednesday’s third session sold 193 juveniles for $8,402,200, a 38 percent increase over last year’s total for 209 horses. The $43,535 average and $30,000 median were both up by 50 percent. Buybacks fell from 22 percent last season to 17 percent.

Wednesday’s session-topper was a $450,000 Orientate-Mir Cat colt that Hill ’n’ Dale Bloodstock bought from Woods. The dark bay or brown colt’s dam is an unraced Tale of the Cat mare and is from the family of A Phenomenon, Seattle Meteor, and other graded winners. He breezed an eighth-mile in 10 seconds at the under-tack show, co-fastest time for the distance on his preview day.

The four-day auction was to end Thursday evening.