A $400,000 Scat Daddy colt was the high point Tuesday, day one at the reformatted Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s March select 2-year-old sale in Ocala, Fla. The $400,000 session-topper is from his sire’s first crop and went to the Japanese company K.K. Eishindo, a model railroad manufacturer. Old South Farm, agent, consigned the bay colt. The colt is out of Madagascat, by Tale of the Cat, and is from the family of Grade 3 winner Lindsay Jean. Offered as Hip No. 137, the colt had the under-tack show’s co-fastest eighth-mile work when he went in 9.80 seconds. Under its new structure, the larger 2011 auction combined OBS’s March and February select sales, so it was difficult to make meaningful session-to-session comparisons. Last year’s smaller session sold 84 juveniles for $8,126,000, resulting in a $96,738 average price and a $70,000 median. This year, the expanded catalog sold 117 horses for $10,322,000, an increase of 27 percent. The 2011 average price was $88,222, 9 percent lower, and the median was $57,000, a decrease of 19 percent from last year’s March sale under a different format. Buybacks remained the same from 2010 to 2011 at 31 percent. Tuesday’s session, the first of two, saw Japanese participation at the top of the market as well as strong activity from Uncle Mo’s owner Mike Repole, Iron Horse Racing, and other domestic buyers.  K.K. Eishindo, which bought the session-topping Scat Daddy colt, also signed for an $85,000 Half Ours-Hang Up colt offered by the Southern Chase agency and an $80,000 Johannesburg-Hooked on Niners filly that Eisaman Equine sold. The purchase alleviated some doubts over whether Japanese buyers, once expected to be a force at the auction, would participate strongly after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear crisis gripped their nation beginning March 11. The OBS auction, the largest of the season’s select juvenile auctions, opened amidst economic uncertainty as global stock markets responded to the Japanese crisis and continuing political turmoil in the Middle East. OBS officials had aggressively marketed to Japanese buyers in the months before the sale. Overnight, the Japanese market lost more than 10 percent, and as the OBS auction’s first session opened, the U.S. stock market was down 200 points. Still, seven horses fetched bids of $300,000 or more. Repole was the first bidder to pay six figures for a horse, when he bid $325,000 for the 12th horse to come into the auction ring. That was Hip No. 16, an Indian Charlie colt out of the unraced Storm Creek mare Eva’s Melody. The McKathan Brothers agency’s bay colt had worked an eighth-mile in 10 seconds flat at the under-tack show. Hip No. 16 went through the auction ring last year at Keeneland’s September auction, where he was a $70,000 buyback. Repole came back to buy the session’s second-highest-priced horse, Classic Bloodstock agency’s $380,000 colt by first-crop sire Street Sense. The bay colt is out of Grade 2 winner Regally Appealing and worked his eighth-mile in 10 seconds. Last year, he brought $50,000 at the Keeneland September sale. Repole’s undefeated Uncle Mo, last year’s juvenile champion and a leading contender for the Kentucky Derby, also is by Indian Charlie. He most recently won the Timely Writer Stakes at Gulfstream on March 12, extending his win streak to four. Spendthrift Farm owner B. Wayne Hughes bought a $350,000 colt by 2010 leading freshman sire Congrats. The son of Rosekris Point was part of Tradewinds Farm’s consignment and had a 21.4-second quarter-mile work to his credit. He marked a good return for his seller; the OBS August yearling sale graduate cost just $22,000 last year. Agent Buzz Chace, representing Richard Santulli’s Jayeff B Stables, bought a $350,000 Mizzen Mast-Im Cruising Dixie colt. The former $50,000 Fasig-Tipton October yearling breezed an eighth in 10 seconds. David Clark of Iron Horse Racing bought a trio of six-figure horses. The most expensive was a $325,000 Officer filly. Consigned by the Eddie Woods agency, the filly is a daughter of Grade 3-placed Freakin Streakin, by Tactical Advantage. She breezed a quarter-mile in 21.4 seconds at the preview. The filly previously sold at Keeneland’s September yearling sale for $11,000, where agent Tim Kegel signed for her. Iron Horse Racing’s purchases also included a $150,000 Speightstown colt out of the Secretariat mare Fantastic Ways, a half-brother to graded winners Worldly Ways, Miss Fortunate, and Trial By Jury. Eddie Woods, agent, also consigned that colt, who was part of a new pinhooking venture by Mandy Pope’s Whisper Hill Farm. Pope bought the colt for $85,000 at last year’s Keeneland September yearling auction. Earle I. Mack made good use of the Ides of March, buying the aptly named Julius Caesar, a $330,000 Empire Maker colt out of Redhead Riot. Arc Bloodstock represented Mack; the colt’s consignor was Eddie Woods. Julius Caesar worked an eighth in 10.2 seconds.  One less expensive buy that nonetheless attracted some attention was trainer Bob Baffert’s $80,000 purchase of Hip No. 120. The Badge of Silver filly is out of the Coronado’s Quest mare Le Relais, making her a half-sister to Kentucky Derby hopeful and recent Fountain of Youth winner Soldat. Eisaman Equine sold the dark bay or brown filly, who covered an eighth-mile in 10.4 seconds. Eisaman Equine paid $40,000 for her at last year’s Keeneland September yearling sale. The OBS March select sale will continue Wednesday at 11 a.m. in Ocala.