OBS winter mixed sale features online options as winter storm impacts travel
One of the final mixed sales prior to the breeding season will take place on Tuesday, as the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. hosts its winter mixed sale. Concurrently, the company is holding an online-only horses of racing age sale. With travel impacted by brutal winter weather across a large swath of the country, it’s safe to assume that some of the bidding for the “traditional” sale will take place online or by phone, as well.
The OBS winter mixed sale, which begins at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, has 307 hips cataloged, including supplemental entries. The catalog consists of newly-turned yearlings – who have been a strong market segment – active broodmares, and racing or broodmare prospects.
Meanwhile, the OBS Online platform is conducting a horses of racing age sale; bidding opened Monday and will run through Friday. Of the 16 entries, five are newly-turned 2-year-olds, being offered prior to the traditional juvenile breeze-up market that OBS will offer the bulk of the available crop in, in three sales from March through June.
The winter mixed sale is, traditionally, a hub for locals in the Florida breeding industry to pick up mares for the upcoming season. It is also frequented by pinhookers eyeing the young stock; White Abarrio, winner of the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Classic and second in his attempt to repeat in the Pegasus World Cup last Saturday, is a graduate of the latter category.
The locals could be lonely on the sale grounds this week. A massive winter storm system that roared over the weekend spared Florida, but impacted an area stretching from Texas on a northeast track up to New England. According to aviation analytics, U.S. airlines have experienced the highest number of flight cancellations since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March 2020. In addition to phone bidding, long a staple for off-site buyers at major Thoroughbred sales, live online bidding and increased tools to inspect horses virtually were integrated into the country’s major auction houses as a result of the pandemic, and those tools will be in use this week.
Breeding sheds in the U.S. open in early to mid-February, and the OBS winter sale is the penultimate opportunity to acquire a broodmare or prospect at public auction for the upcoming season. The final sale of this season will be the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky winter mixed sale on Feb. 9.
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