Eddie Woods Will Hang Up the Reins After OBS April

Eddie Woods has been a well-known fixture at the 2-year-old sales for more than 30 years, providing the early training for dozens of graded stakes winners including champions Big Brown, Lady Eli, and Midnight Lute. His jovial personality and keen eye for horses have become familiar in sales rings all over the world. Woods stated March 13 that after the April 15-18 Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, he will hang up the reins. He said that he plans to do some consulting and help people buy horses, some things he didn't have time to do before. Woods sold a record-breaking Gun Runner colt (Hip 654) on the last day of the OBS March 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale March 13 for $3 million to Zedan Racing. He finished the sale as leading consignor on Day 3 with five sold for $3,277,000, and second for the entire sale with 19 head sold for a total of $6,448,500. "I wasn't waiting to go to the top to go out," Woods said. "Ali de Meric, she said 'that's a great mic drop, here you are, equal that boys, I'm out of here' right? That was kind of fun in a way. It's nice to do it, to sell a really nice horse in this place (OBS). This place has been good to me. It's a pleasure for us to do it." Woods brought his first consignment to OBS in April 31 years ago. Since then, he has consigned more than 90 graded stakes winners, according to his website, including the aforementioned champion 3-year-old male Big Brown, who won the 2008 Kentucky Derby (G1) and Preakness Stakes (G1). Woods bought the son of Boundary for $60,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Yearling Sale in 2006. He then sold him at the 2007 Keeneland April 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale for $190,000 to Paul Pompa Jr. When asked if he had a favorite he said: "No, but I suppose in a way Big Brown, because we bought him and we owned him, and he won the (Kentucky) Derby. The Derby is the race. "We've got three boards out there, and it still doesn't carry all the names." Other notable graduates include: Left Bank, 2002 champion older horse Lady Eli, 2017 champion turf female and winner of the 2014 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T) Midnight Lute, 2007 champion sprinter and back-to-back winner of the Breeder's Cup Sprint (G1) in 2007 and 2008 Spring in the Air, a grade 1 winner in the United States and 2012 champion 2-year-old filly in Canada Union Rags, winner of the 2011 Champagne Stakes (G1) at 2 and the 2012 Belmont Stakes (G1) at 3 For the next generation of juvenile sellers, Woods emphasized a focus on quality. "You just have to have quality. That's all you can deal with anymore. You can't make any money with them lower horses, so you have to gamble and have the better horse, then you'll get rewarded. It's like investing in stock or anything, when you buy the high stock, high reward, low stock, penny stocks. You're never going anywhere, you just tread water a little bit." Woods has bought many yearlings at what turned out to be bargain prices. He said: "The freshman sires have been good to us for years, but I like good walkers and as much quality as I can afford." One such progeny of a freshman sire sold well March 12 from Woods' consignment. A colt by first-crop sire Independence Hall sold for $1 million to JPM Bloodstock. The colt is a second-generation Woods graduate, as his dam, the stakes-placed Harlan's Holiday mare Orecchiette, was also sold by Woods, selling for $135,000 at the 2016 OBS April Sale. "Very nice," said Woods on his upcoming OBS April consignment. "We don't have a $3 million horse, but we've got some nice ones."