OBS spring sale: Broken Vow colt brings $1.2 million

The third session of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. spring sale of 2-year-olds in training continued to keep an even pace with the previous year’s edition, led by a $1.2-million Broken Vow colt.

Thursday’s session saw 156 horses sold for revenues of $13,816,500, down 11 percent from last year’s third day of trade, when 173 juveniles sold for $15,489,000.

The average session-to-session sale price fell 1 percent from $89,532 to $88,567, while the median rose 11 percent to $50,000 after finishing at $45,000 last year. The day three buyback rate finished at 28 percent, up from 22 percent during last year’s similar session.

At the top of the market, nine horses sold for $300,000 or more on Thursday, trailing the 11 to reach that level in the previous sale’s third session. Forty-three juveniles changed hands for six figures or more, keeping close to the 44 that did so during the same session in 2015.

The first seven-figure horse of this year’s OBS spring sale went through the ring on Thursday, selling to Breeze Easy LLC for $1.2 million.

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The colt is also notable for being the first seven-figure unraced horse (weanling, yearling, or 2-year-old) to sell at auction by Pin Oak Stud’s Broken Vow. A 19-year-old son of Unbridled, Broken Vow has had seven-figure broodmares and racing/broodmare prospects in the past, including Cotton Blossom, Bella Jolie, and Rosalind.

Bred in Florida by Hal Snowden Jr., the chestnut session-topper is out of the multiple stakes-winning Silver Deputy mare Haddie Be Good, whose three foals to race are all winners, including stakes winner Story to Tell. He is from the family of Grade 1 winners Sam's Sister, Sweet Talker, Include Me Out, and Check the Label, as well as Grade 3 winner Silver Medallion.

At the fall of the hammer, the colt became the most expensive foal out of Haddie Be Good, surpassing Story to Tell, by Bluegrass Cat, who brought $200,000 at the 2014 Barretts March select sale of 2-year-olds in training.

The session-topper was a $55,000 weanling purchase out of the 2014 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, then sold for $105,000 at last year's Keeneland September yearling sale to Tom McCrocklin, as agent for Solana Beach Sales. McCrocklin consigned the colt as agent at the OBS Spring sale.

The colt breezed two furlongs in 20 4/5 seconds over the Ocala Training Center's all-weather Safetrack surface during the presale under-tack show.

Broken Vow stands at Pin Oak Stud in Versailles, Ky. for an advertised fee of $25,000. Prior to Thursday's transaction, his most expensive 2-year-old was Freedom Tower, who brought $950,000 at last year's OBS March sale of 2-year-olds in training.

Niall Brennan Stables was Thursday’s leading consignor by gross, with 11 horses sold for a combined $2,136,000. His consignment handled the auction’s second-highest-priced offering through three sessions, a Candy Ride colt who sold to bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neill for $875,000.

Breeze Easy was the day’s top buyer, with four purchases totaling $1,645,000, including the current sale-topper.

After three of four sessions, a total of 484 horses have sold at the OBS Spring sale for $37,769,500, trailing 4 percent behind last year’s three-day gross of $39,420,900 from 514 horses sold.

The average sale price of $78,036 marked a 2 percent increase over last year’s figure of $76,694, while the median remained steady at $45,000. The cumulative buyback rate is 26 percent, up from 23 percent at the same point in 2015.

The OBS spring sale concludes on Friday, beginning at 10:30 a.m. Eastern.