THE BROCK TALK

Brock Sheridan

Editor-in-Chief

Florida Equine Communications

SERITA HULT PHOTO

The Ocala Breeders’ Sales October Yearling Sale posted another successful auction this month with the preferred session setting records anew. The numbers outlined in the story on page 34 of this issue note that Floridabreds topped both segments of the two-day auction, confirming strong national demand for top-notch yearlings bred in the Sunshine State.

OBS officials shifted their annual yearling sale from August to October in 2017, driving annual growth ever since. Results indicate that the OBS yearlings—slotted neatly between the Keeneland September Yearling Sale and the Fasig-Tipton October Yearling season-ender—has expanded from its long-held, positive reputation as a pinhook goldmine.

Savvy national buyers, such as Leonard Green’s DJ Stable, who alone and with partners has campaigned or bred such notable runners as Songandaprayer, Do It With Style and Hoppertunity, have apparently noticed. DJ Stable purchased both top sellers during the preferred session this year and followed up during the open session to outlast all bidders for one of the day’s toppers, a $110,000 Florida-bred Girvin filly.

Evidence shows that the OBS October Sale produces not only stakes horses, but is represented by several Breeders’ Cup contenders.

For example, Breeders’ Cup-bound Florida-breds Speed Boat Beach, Delight and Hot Peppers are all OBS October graduates as is Awesome Strong, who swept the male divisions of the FTBOA Florida Sire Stakes this year (see story on page 23) before an injury kept him out of the Breeders’ Cup.

Speed Boat Beach sold for $200,000 out of the Really and Truly Thoroughbreds consignment at OBS March as a 2-year-old to current owners Three Amigos. However, the Caperlane Farmbred colt by Bayern out of Sophia Mia, by Pioneerof the Nile went for $12,000 to Rubin M. Sanchez as a yearling at last year’s OBS October Sale where he was consigned by Stuart Morris.

Speed Boat Beach won the $102,000 Speakeasy at Santa Anita (see story on page 15) and at press time was headed to the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1).

Delight, whose half-sister by The Factor out of Honey Trap, by Medaglia d’Oro was one of the sale toppers purchased by D J Stable at this year’s OBS October Sale, was purchased by current trainer Jonathan Thomas as an agent at the OBS March Sale for $400,000 where he was consigned by Paul Sharp. Last year, Delight, who was bred in Florida by Hickstead Farm, sold for $90,000 at the OBS October Sale to Whetstone Farm out of the Stuart Morris consignment.

Delight won the $320,463 JP Morgan Chase Jessamine (G2) at Keeneland on Oct. 7 (see story on page 16) to qualify for the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1).

Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint (G1)-bound Hot Peppers, who was bred in Florida by Brent and Crystal Fernung, this year won the Grade 3 Victory Ride and $150,000 Jersey Girl at Belmont Park. She sold during the 2020 OBS October Yearling Sale for $40,000 out of the Fernung’s Journeyman Sales consignment to Nick de Meric. Then returned to OBS in June in the de Meric Sales consignment and trainer Ronald Spatz paid $16,000 to acquire her.

Another prime example is Florida-bred Havnameltdown, winner of the Grade 3 Best Pal at Del Mar in August. Another $200,000 purchase by Three Amigos as a 2-year-old earlier this year at OBS during their Spring Sale where he was consigned by Blas Perez Stables, the son of Uncaptured sold for $16,000 to Perez at the OBS October Sale last year.

Awesome Strong was a $30,000 purchase by Elena Racing out of the Sue Vacek consignment at the 2021 OBS October Sale. Awesome Strong, who was bred by John B. Penn and is a son of Ocala Stud’s Awesome Slew, has thus far earned $458,000 while racing for CSLR Racing Partnership.

So it should be remembered next year during the yearling auctions, that paying high prices at a sale in Kentucky or New York may not be the most efficient recipe for success at the track. The OBS October Sale is a lucrative forum where local breeders can merchandise their yearlings to those national buyers looking for future Saturday afternoon stakes performers and tickets to the Breeders’ Cup. TFH