Pharoah has two yearlings in three-day OBS sale

The first crop of yearlings by Triple Crown winner American Pharoah has achieved blockbuster results throughout the season. The young stallion is represented by a pair of offerings at next week’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. fall yearling sale, which looks to continue momentum after a positive reaction to a shift on the calendar last year.

OBS traditionally held its annual yearling sale in August, placing it early on that market’s calendar. But last year, the sale was shifted to October to attract buyers who were shut out of purchases at other major auctions and felt a sense of urgency as the end of the season approached. Last year’s two-day sale closed with 406 yearlings sold for $8,120,500, only a 6 percent decline in gross despite a 38 percent catalog reduction from 2016’s August sale. The average sale price spiked 20 percent to $20,001, and the median, $8,000, represented a 14 percent gain.

This year’s auction expands to three days, with Hips 1 through 213 offered in a select session Tuesday and another 488 yearlings cataloged for open sessions Wednesday and Thursday. All three sessions begin at noon Eastern.

Both yearlings by American Pharoah – who has seven million-dollar yearlings sold this year and is averaging $474,755 worldwide – are cataloged in Tuesday’s select session. A filly out of the First Defence mare Toast to Ashley is from the female family of Grade 1 winner Pioneerof the Nile, American Pharoah’s sire. The filly is consigned by Taylor Made Sales, which purchased her for $220,000 in the name of its pinhooking partnership, Bloodstock Investments, at the Keeneland January sale of horses of all ages.

A New York-bred colt by American Pharoah is consigned to OBS by Stuart Morris as agent for Waldorf Farm. The colt is out of the winning Dixie Union mare My Dixie Doodle, a half-sister to stakes winner Southern Success and Grade 1-placed Taste Like Candy. It is the family of Grade 1 winners Affirmed Success, Exbourne, and Expelled.