A filly from the first crop of Practical Joke sold for $750,000 to lead the way as the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s March sale of 2-year-olds in training opened the juvenile sales season in encouraging fashion. The sale posted double-digit gains compared to the tumultuous season opener of 2020. The two-day sale finished with 326 horses sold for gross receipts of $38,265,000. Last year's sale, held as the ongoing coronavirus pandemic was beginning to upend the Thoroughbred world – in fact, the sale began on the same day the Kentucky Derby was officially postponed to September – finished with 295 horses sold for $27,349,500. The cumulative average price was $117,377, spiking 27 percent from $92,710 in 2020. The median price jumped 25 percent, to $62,500 compared with $50,000 a year ago. The buyback rate was an outstanding 16 percent, compared to 39 percent last year as the crisis unfolded. An already selective marketplace has become even more so in the past year, and a figure under 20 percent is outstanding. “I think we’re at a point in time where everybody is ready to get back to business and there is a light at the end of the tunnel here," OBS president Tom Ventura told the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders' and Owners' Association. "It’s almost like people were happy to say goodbye to cabin fever and get out and start doing things they enjoy. You could feel the energy. There was a lot of action on all of the horses, and people were glad to just get back to business.” Sixteen juveniles sold for prices of $500,000 or more during the sale, compared to five who did so during the 2020 auction. This year's $750,000 sale-topping Practical Joke filly also surpassed the price point reached for the $650,000 American Pharoah filly who topped last year's sale. The Practical Joke filly sold to Hideyuki Mori, who also landed a $550,000 American Pharoah colt on Wednesday who also finished among the sale's top 10 prices. A number of international interests, including multiple Japanese buyers, were extremely active at OBS March after a yearling market dominated by domestic interests the previous fall, owing to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic. The Practical Joke filly, bred in Kentucky by Teneri Farm, was a $120,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase by Down the Stretch. She set herself up to be a successful pinhook by breezing a furlong in 9 4/5 seconds during last week's under-tack preview show on the Ocala Training Center's all-weather Safetrack surface, making her one of 27 juveniles tied for the fastest time at that distance. She was brought to the ring Wednesday by James and Torie Gladwell's Top Line Sales, as agent, getting that outfit off to a strong start after an outstanding 2020 sales season. The Gladwells sold last year's most expensive juvenile, Princess Noor, for $1.35 million at OBS March. "Watched Princess Noor load out from the sales last year, now this gorgeous girl," Top Line posted on its Twitter account Wednesday evening, along with a photo of the filly loaded on a horse trailer. "Thanks to everyone who wished us congratulations, and best of luck to her new owners in Japan!" The first juveniles by Practical Joke, who stands at Coolmore's Ashford Stud, have been hotly anticipated this season; not only was he a multiple Grade 1-winning juvenile himself, but he is by reigning leading sire Into Mischief, who has already made a strong start as a sire of sires. Practical Joke won 5 of 12 career starts and only missed the board twice while earning more than $1.7 million. His top-level victories came in the Hopeful and Champagne Stakes at 2, and the King's Bishop Stakes at 3. “Practical Joke’s 2-year-olds are the talk of Ocala,” said Charlie O’Connor, director of sales at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky, where the young stallion resides. “Everyone you speak to has a nice one, and all of the top judges say they have plenty of speed, they look precocious, and are great-training individuals. He is by a sire who can do no wrong, and was an incredibly tough and ultra-consistent racehorse himself . . . . We have very high hopes for his first runners.” Practical Joke's sale-topping filly is out of the Pegasus Wind mare Valiant Emilia, champion older mare in her native Peru and stakes-placed in the United States. The mare's first starter, Valiant Moon, is a winner in Peru. This is the family of recent Tampa Bay Derby winner and Kentucky Derby hopeful Helium, along with another Peruvian champion in Domingo and Peruvian Group 1 winner Emilia's Moon and Thundering Emilia. Rounding out the sale's top three prices were a $600,000 American Pharoah filly purchased by Colombo Bloodstock Agency for Teruya Yoshida and a $575,000 Kantharos colt purchased by Spendthrift Farm and partner MyRacehorse. The American Pharoah filly, who worked a quarter-mile in 20 4/5 seconds during the preview show, is out of Grade 3-placed stakes winner Henny Jenney, by Henny Hughes. She was consigned by Wavertree Stables, as agent. The Kantharos colt, consigned by Woodford Thoroughbreds, as agent, distinguished himself by breezing a quarter-mile in 20 2/5 seconds, making him one of three juveniles tied for that bullet. He is a full brother to stakes winner Adventurous Lady. For hip-by-hip results, click here.