As the yearling season begins to wind down in North America, Ocala Breeders' Sales hopes the momentum from the strong season carries over to its October Yearling Sale that begins Oct. 7 at noon ET. The two-day sale has 551 horses cataloged.
"We've had spotty rain the last couple of days, but between raindrops everybody is getting horses looked at," said OBS director of sales Tod Wojciechowski. "There's been a lot of activity in the barn area."
Less than a month after the record-breaking Keeneland September Yearling Sale, which had the highest gross sales ever achieved at a public auction, Wojciechowski hopes the market will stay strong for the OBS October sale.
Recent graduates of the sale in Ocala, Fla, include multiple graded stakes winner and 2024 Florida Horse of the Year Mystic Lake. The 4-year-old daughter of Mo Town has earned more than $1.4 million since breaking her maiden in the fall of 2023. She was picked up for a modest $3,500 by Tom McCrocklin at the 2022 October sale from the Summerfield consignment.
Grade 1 winner Trikari also came out of the 2022 edition of the sale, where he was purchased by Amerman Racing for $27,500. The multiple graded stakes-winning son of Oscar Performance has earned $1,398,905 under the care of trainer Graham Motion.
"It certainly does (make it exciting)," Wojciechowski said of the graduates' success. "There's always some nice horses here. The catalog stacks up well; there's strong sire power.
"I'm seeing very nice horses on the grounds. A number of those horses that sell well at the 2-year-old sales come right out of here."
Since 2024 October sale graduates have won 53 stakes races and 15 graded stakes, according to OBS.
"We're all anticipating a good sale, and it looks like a lot of people are coming into town," Francis Vanlangendonck of Summerfield Sales said. "A lot of people did not get horses bought and I've had a lot of phone calls from people wondering what I had. (The pinhookers) will be here looking and picking out the better ones. It's going to be a good market for the horses that vet well and have good conformation.
"I think (the bonus depreciation), it obviously doesn't affect the pinhookers, but for the people who are racing, it means a lot. And these guys who have sold pieces of stallions and have successful racehorses, they're going to pour it right back in because that's what they do. That's what makes this work out so well."
Last year's sale saw 297 head sell for $5,724,600, including private sales. The average was $19,275, with a median of $10,000. A Florida-bred filly by Complexity topped the sale at $150,000, selling to Top Line Sales, agent. The filly, now named Intricity, sold for $385,000 to Steven Rocco and Adelphi Racing at the OBS March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training after breezing an eighth in :09 4/5. She ran fourth on debut in an Oct. 1 maiden race at Presque Isle Downs.
The Oct. 7 session will offer hips 1-230, plus supplemental hips 231-258, with the Oct. 8 session selling hips 301-530 along with supplemental hips 531-551.
