OBS Winter Mixed Sale Opens Tuesday

[Wandering Eyes]

The Ocala Breeders Sales Company opens its 2019 calendar with a two-session Winter Mixed Sale which gets underway Tuesday at 11 a.m. The auction begins with 186 catalogued head in the consignor preferred section and is followed by a selection of horses of racing age. The sale concludes Wednesday with an open session.

“I think we’ll see a lot of what we’ve seen at other mixed sales,” said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski. “I think people will be rewarded for perceived quality. There will be money here for the right horses.”

The Winter sale’s horses of racing age section, which includes 117 catalogued offerings, features 35 older horses, 62 3-year-olds and 20 2-year-olds.

“It has been a work in progress,” Wojciechowski said of the racing age portion of the sale. “I think people are starting to recognize it as a spot that you can buy some good, useful horses.”

OBS held an under-tack show for the racing age horses Monday, which adds to the section’s appeal, according to Wojciechowski.

“It’s a unique aspect of our racing age sale that we have them perform on the track and have a video of them breezing,” he said.

Grand Royale (Cairo Prince), an unraced 3-year-old, turned in the fastest three-furlong breeze Monday, covering the distance in :32 1/5. The Oklahoma-bred colt, hip 194, is consigned by James Layden. An unraced 3-year-old by Goldencents (hip 251) had the day’s fastest four-furlong breeze of :44 flat. The bay colt is consigned by Woodside Ranch.

“The track played pretty quick with the weather we had here Sunday, it was cold and rainy, and it was cold again this morning,” Wojciechowski said. “But there were some nice horses who sure looked good moving over the track. It was a good, safe breeze show.”

The OBS sales complex has been undergoing an extensive renovation in recent years and buyers will see plenty new since the company held its most recent sale last October.

“From October to January, there has been a pretty dramatic change,” Wojciechowski said. “The auditorium is, for all intents and purposes, complete. We have totally revamped the auditorium with new seats, new flooring, new ceiling, new everything. There are still some public areas that are not quite finished yet, but we are certainly on the downhill side of it. And I think people will even see an improvement from now to March. We’ve had a lot of positive comments. People are pretty excited to see what we’ve done and they are appreciative of it.”

A yearling filly by Violence brought the top price of $200,000 at last year’s OBS Winter sale. The filly was one of nine to bring six figures at the auction. In all, 409 head grossed $5,969,600. The average was $14,596–up 62% from the 2017 figure–and the median was up 38% to $6,000.

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