In the days preceding Tuesday and Wednesdays Ocala Breeders Sales Co.s select auction of 2-year-olds in training, the prevailing sentiment was that this sale could test the middle of the market.
We passed the test, said Tom Ventura, the general manager and sales director of the OBS, and the sales results show that Ventura was on the mark.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - By winning the Tampa Bay Derby in track-record time of 1:43.11 for 1 1/16 miles, Street Sense has thrown down the gauntlet to any classic colts who want to challenge his dominance in the division. Anyone wanting classic glory has this bay son of Street Cry to beat.
Street Sense nipped the talented and progressive Any Given Saturday in the Tampa Bay Derby, and both colts should progress through the season and show appreciation for classic distances.
The juvenile sales tempo accelerates this week with the Adena Springs auction of homebred 2-year-olds in training set for Monday afternoon at 5 p.m. There are 141 cataloged for this sale, which is managed by the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. The auction, however, does not take place at the OBS facilities but at Adena Springs South, about 20 miles north of Ocala.
The OBS March selected sale of 2-year-olds in training begins Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. There are 259 2-year-olds cataloged to sell in the first session and 261 for the second and final session on Wednesday.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Sales Integrity Task Force, which hammered out a nonbinding code of ethics for the bloodstock industry in 2004, is assembling a new team to tackle the issue of ownership disclosure again. And this time, the panel likely will include members from outside the Thoroughbred breeding and racing industry.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The 17 California-breds offered at Tuesday's Barretts March Sale of 2-year-olds in-training comprised less than 10 percent of the catalog, but they still had a significant impact on the one-day sale.
Among the 17, seven listed as sold, is a Cape Town filly that went for $800,000, the most expensive female purchased at the sale. The seven that were sold grossed $1,640,000 for an average of $234,285. There were six listed as not sold and four were withdrawn.
The English-based Les Arcs, who began his 6-year-old season as a relative unknown on both sides of the Atlantic, produced two remarkable efforts within 21 days during the summer of 2006. His victories in the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot and the July Cup at Newmarket, both Group 1 races on the turf, netted Les Arcs not only the majority of his $855,075 in earnings for the year, but also the titles of Maryland-bred horse of the year, champion older horse, champion turf horse, and champion sprinter in the annual poll conducted by the Maryland Horse Breeders Association.
This continues a review of New York stallions that will be represented by their first crop of runners in 2007.
Hook and Ladder: This son of Dixieland Band stands at Sequel Stallions New York, in Hudson, N.Y., for a fee of $6,000.
Winner of the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Breeders Cup Sprint Handicap and Grade 3 Mr. Prospector Handicap, Hook and Ladder has been well received at auction. He was among the national leaders in terms of return on investment for a first- crop yearling sire in 2006.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Like a charmed princess, the royally pedigreed Rags to Riches has galloped into the spotlight as a classic candidate. A winner in 3 of her 4 starts, Rags to Riches has been so convincing in her last two performances - both victories in Grade 1 stakes - that the chestnut filly is even being considered for the Kentucky Derby.
To sell a $3,000 yearling and watch him score impressively in stakes company at 3 would be discouraging for some people. But not Donald Schmidt.
"It's as much of a thrill winning with the ones I've bred as the ones I own," says Schmidt, who celebrated the first stakes win of his career with Call Me Clash's front-running three-length victory in the Horatius Stakes on March 3 at Laurel Park.
California's Barretts March select juvenile auction will take place Tuesday in a sale season that, so far, is showing signs of getting over last year's mania.
Recent select 2-year-old auction returns have returned to earth after a record-breaking season last year, and Barretts officials are hoping for a sound, profitable auction, with maybe some million-dollar cream on top.
The Barretts March sale has some positives lining up in its favor.