The Ocala Breeders' Winter Mixed Sale concluded Jan. 28, with Last Leaf, a multiple stakes-winning mare by Not This Time , topping the sale at $140,000. The 6-year-old broodmare prospect was purchased by Marette Farrell on behalf of Joey Peacock under Senor's Senorita's, the name he is using to buy mares to breed to his recently retired grade 1 winner Senor Buscador .
"He really wants to support the stallion with good mares," Farrell said of Peacock. "The mares we've already accumulated have all run good numbers, have good form. This filly ran in some of the top stakes races and was a graded stakes-level filly. (Her pedigree) goes back to (champion) Soul of an Angel, who won the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Sprint, and (grade 1 winner) Homeboykris. It's exactly what he needs. And she's beautiful, just a gorgeous upper body."
Last Leaf was bred in Kentucky by Khalid Mishref Alkahtani and was offered by G. Martinez Training, agent. She is out of the stakes-placed mare My Miss Kallie.
For Martinez, Last Leaf was the only horse his consignment sent through the ring at the Winter Mixed Sale, giving him a home run of a result.
"I think she's going to be a nice broodmare," Martinez said. "She's the only one (we sold), so it feels good to sell one like that. We were expecting a bit more, but that's okay."
A total of 213 head sold for $3,108,700, including private sales, during the newly minted single-session auction, with an average of $14,595 and a median of $7,500. With 72 outs, 270 horses were offered, with 57 failing to meet their reserve, resulting in an RNA rate of 21.1%.
A filly by McKinzie consigned as Hip 70 was the highest-priced yearling of the sale, selling for $97,000 to Lambholm, agent, from the Summerfield (Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck) consignment. The filly was bred in Kentucky by Don Duppenthaler, Jackie Duppenthaler, Wade Russell, and Donna Russell and is out of the Bellamy Road mare Picolata. She hails from the family of graded stakes winner North East Bound.
"We thought we would be in the $75-80,000 range, but there were so many people on her I thought we might get close to $100,000," said Francis Vanlangendonck of Summerfield. "We're thrilled. She's a pretty filly. Being by (McKinzie), there aren't many like that here. And she was correct and vetted perfectly, so she was one of the better ones on the sales grounds.
"She got shown like 50 times two days in a row, she never stopped. She showed lots of class."
Hip 233, a colt by Yaupon , fetched the highest price for a yearling colt at $95,000. Kaizen Sales (Richard Kent) consigned the Florida-bred on behalf of breeders Helen Barbazon & Joseph Barbazon. He is the second foal of the mare Catsoutofthebag, who is a sister to stakes-placed Fly At Dawn.
"We showed him over 100 times and he never wavered," Kent said of the colt. "He was ready to go each time we brought him out. It's a little easier to sell really nice horses. He had the advantage of having a sire that is a real talking horse right now, especially here in Ocala. I loved his balance and the way that he walked, he had a really smooth walk to him. So, we were pretty confident."
"(The market) is a little sticky," Kent said. "The good horses, they sell, but it's difficult on the middle-of-the-road horses. That hasn't changed for a long time."
Abbie Road Farm (Lisa McGreevy) led the consignors with 25 head sold for $528,200, and Senor's Senorita's led the buyers with its single purchase of Last Leaf for $140,000.
Last year's two-day sale saw 282 horses sell from the 353 on offer, for a total of $4,491,800, including private sales. The average was $15,928, with a median of $8,000. The RNA rate was 20.1%, representing the 71 horses who failed to meet their reserve.
New this year was the sale of horses of racing age and 2-year-olds being held on the digital platform OBSOnline, starting Jan. 23 and ending Jan. 30.
OBS now sets its sights on the March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale March 11-13, with an under tack preview March 5-8.
