$1-Million Yaupon Colt Tops Finale as OBS March Sale Concludes with Record Gross

[Wandering Eyes]

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis

OCALA, FL – With one more million-dollar juvenile bringing its three-day total to a record-tying seven, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training concluded Thursday with its highest-ever gross and increases in both average and median from a year ago.

“Gratified, pleased and happy for the consignors,” OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski said of the auction's record-setting results. The consignors bring the horses and the quality of the horses that they bring is what brings the prices. So I am happy for the consignors. I am pleased with the amount of trade that took place over all three days, domestically and internationally. We had involvement from a lot of different buyers, so we are very happy with that.”

Through three sessions, 439 horses sold for a gross of $71,815,500, eclipsing the mark of $71,473,500 set when 464 horses sold in 2023. The average of $163,589 was up 7.4% from a year ago, while the median was up 7.1% to $85,000.

From a catalogue of 816, a total of 566 horses went through the ring with 127 failing to meet their reserves for a buy-back rate of 22.4%. It was 17.6% a year ago.

A colt by Yaupon, consigned by Kings Equine, became the auction's seventh seven-figure juvenile when selling to Donato Lanni for $1 million Thursday. That matched the record-setting number to hit that mark in 2025.

Donato Lanni signed for Thursday's $1-million colt | OBS/Photos by Z

Two of those million-dollar juveniles were consigned by Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables, which was the auction's leading consigner with 13 sold for $7,730,000.

“It's been an unbelievable market,” Dunne said. “I don't know what drives it. But I know what causes it–a fast horse. And there is no shortage of appetite for that. At the end of the day, we may all be doom and gloom about our business, but one of the most exciting things that someone can do is still to own a winner. We get so tied up in the nuts and bolts of it, we forget the enjoyment that that gives the people. I think that's as important as any tax code.”

Consignor Randy Miles said he saw plenty of positives in the March market.

“I thought it was wonderful,” Miles said of the sale. “I thought it was well attended. The good horses sold well and the middle of the road horses were traded, which is always good. In my consignment, we had action on every horse. It was up to me whether I sold the horse or not. The buyers were willing to buy.

“If we just look at racing alone, racing is doing very well. We have our hiccups, but racing is doing well. And everybody loves to come to March. It's the first 2-year-old sale. It seemed like the people who were here were excited to buy and bought multiple horses. I hope it carries on to April.”

Juveniles from the first crop of Grade I winner Drain the Clock set the track on fire during last week's under-tack preview and the Gainesway stallion delivered in the sales ring, topped by a $1.1-million colt. Fellow freshman Corniche also had a million-dollar result with a colt selling for $1.35 million.

The strength of the yearling market may have changed the type of horses pinhookers could afford a year ago, leading to a change in the make-up of the March catalogue, which featured a deep bench of first-crop sires. Last year's record-setting $3-million March topper was one of eight by Gun Runner catalogued to the auction. None were catalogued by the leading sire this year.

“It's the same old song and dance, the ones they want they are paying up for and the other ones are struggling to get sold,” said S G V Thoroughbreds' Steve Venosa. “It was extremely hard to buy horses last year, so people are looking for maybe a little more depth in the pedigrees. With the smaller foal crop and as hard as it was to buy them [as yearlings], it's showing here. Maybe some people are waiting for the April sale.”

Raul Reyes of Kings Equine sold Thursday's topper in between feeding hungry shoppers | OBS/Photos by Z

Bloodstock agent Justin Casse was active as both a buyer and seller at the March sale and was seeing opportunities ahead in what could be a tightening market.

“Going to the barns and talking to some of the consignors, they said they had to really work to get some horses sold,” Casse said. “That might concern me a little bit for April when there will be 50% more horses. I am looking forward to it since there is more opportunity.”

While Wavertree has for years been among the leading consignors in Ocala, the March sale–the first in recent memory to not include a consignment from the legendary Eddie Woods–also allowed some younger consignors to shine. Jesse Hoppel and Susan Montanye's SBM Training and Sales were both represented by their first million-dollar sales at the auction.

“A lot of the younger consignors are really starting to become a bigger and bigger part of the sales,” Wojciechowski said. “We've seen Nick de Meric stepping down a little bit and Tristan [de Meric] picking up the reins. We see Jimbo Gladwell, Joe Pickerell, SBM Stables, Jesse Hoppel, these younger consignors really starting to grow more and more within the industry. We always worry, are we going to be able to replace the consignors we have. It looks like we are in good hands.”

Yaupon Colt Another Success for D'Angelo

Trainer Jose D'Angelo, coming off a career year in which he won two Breeders' Cup races, found success in the sales ring Thursday at OBS when bloodstock agent Donato Lanni purchased a son of Yaupon (hip 576) for $1 million. D'Angelo had acquired the colt for $235,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

“I was looking to pinhook a horse and I saw him at Hunter Valley and I fell in love with him,” D'Angelo said. “He had everything that you are looking for in a racehorse.”

Hip 576 | OBS/VidHorse

D'Angelo purchased the colt in partnership with Hal Mintz and Seth Morris, but he had to do so remotely.

“I remember it was the same day Bentornato won at Churchill, so I bought him on the phone,” D'Angelo recalled with a smile. “I called my owners to help me get in there and they decided to pinhook and we were good.”

Bentornato won the Louisville Thoroughbred Society Stakes last September before his victory in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Hip 576 is out of Balbina (Lemon Drop Kid), a daughter of multiple graded winner Ready's Gal (More Than Ready). Consigned by Kings Equine, the bay worked a furlong during last week's under-tack preview in :9 4/5.

With a pair of graded-stakes winning graduates on his resume, D'Angelo isn't a stranger to pinhooking success. He purchased Iscreamuscream (Twirling Candy) for $55,000 at the 2022 Keeneland September sale and resold her for $145,000 at the OBS March sale the following year. He also purchased Taxed (Collected) for $27,000 at Keeneland in 2021 before selling the future graded winner for $105,000 the next March.

Asked if he was surprised by Thursday's seven-figure result, D'Angelo said, “I was sure he was going to bring $1 million. He looks like a $1-million horse.”

The outstanding result had the trainer hoping a colt by Epicenter (hip 683) selling later in the session might stay in his barn to race, but the juvenile proved another astute pinhook. Picked up for $90,000 last September, the gray colt sold for $560,000 to William Werner.

Lanni made the winning bid on hip 576 on behalf of Mike Pegram, Karl Watson, and Paul Weitman.

“He will go to California,” Lanni confirmed. “He was beautiful and fast. And sound. He came out of the work very good. He was a horse that did everything well.” —@JessMartiniTDN

de Meric Sales Round Out OBS March with $800K Filly By Constitution

Having already sold a seven-figure yearling on Day 1 of this week's OBS March Sale, de Meric Sales rounded out the auction's three-day run with a filly by Constitution garnering $800,000 from Donato Lanni, bidding on behalf of Frank Fletcher, during Thursday's final session.

Hip 694 | OBS/VidHorse

The leading filly of the day, she was the second-highest priced juvenile of the afternoon behind a colt by Yaupon (hip 576), who brought $1 million earlier in the session.

Offered as hip 694, the dark bay filly is out of Curls and Bows (Curlin), a half-sister of GI La Brea Stakes winner Dearest Trickski (Proudest Romeo).

The juvenile posted a :10 flat move during last Saturday's breeze show.

On Day 1, the agency was rewarded with a cool $1.1-million final bid from Pedro Lanz when a colt by Drain the Clock (hip 132) led the initial session. The colt was the fifth highest-priced juvenile over the course of three days.

On the second day of selling, de Meric also sold a filly by sophomore sire Yaupon (hip 437) for $700,000 to MorPlay Racing / Marquee Bloodstock /Marc Tacher.

Through three days of selling, de Meric Sales sold 18 head for a gross of $4,677,000, rounding out the week as the third leading consignor in gross at this season's OBS March sale. —@CBossTDN

Casse Finds Up-and-Coming Sires on Point at OBS

One can always count on agent Justin Casse to be hard at work scouting out potential prospects at many of the nation's biggest sales. This week at OBS March proved no different.

“I don't know that people expected it to be a crazy market here given how the yearling market was and how that's carried over, but I think everybody should be pretty pleased. Maybe it wasn't like the yearling sales but it seemed pretty solid,” he opined.

Justin Casse | Photos by Z

Active as both a buyer and seller through the sale's three-day run, Casse signed for seven juveniles, including a $560,000 colt by Mandaloun (hip 313) on Day 2 and a trio of $335,000 buys, highlighted by a filly Drain the Clock (hip 595) who was purchased by Casse on behalf of CKDS Racing on Thursday afternoon.

The other two to attain the $335,000 mark were hip 39, a filly by Practical Joke purchased on Day 1 in addition to hip 405, a colt by Nashville, secured in tandem with JWS Racing.

“I think there were definitely some surprises,” remarked Casse. “What people are willing to pay for a fast breeze by either an unproven stallion or a blue-collar stallion, basically not a sexy stallion. Sexy stallions sell well but it's been all about the physical and performance and the 'digestible' stallion or a freshman stallion, which there are a ton of freshmans in here. I'd say there is a larger number than year's past because yearling buyers were unable to get the really good stock that they would have wanted last fall.”

Like many other buyers at March this year, Casse leaned quite heavily into younger, unproven sires. Out of his seven purchases, six of the youngsters were by first-season sires.

“People tend to stick to the upper level of the yearling sales, say the top 10 stallions and the top 10 freshman stallions,” he said. “At the 2-year-old sales, the range is well beyond that if they can show performance. They're willing to look at a lot more and it's great for these guys.”

Also included in Casse's haul this year were colts by Jack Christopher (hip 789) and Corniche (hip 178) in addition to a filly by Olympiad (hip 637).

Casse's total expenditures for the three sessions was $2,305,000.

When asked if he thought this week's results might inform future decisions later this season, he said, “Personally, it might make me as a pinhooker start looking harder at [yearlings by] certain stallions that I normally wouldn't have looked at last fall. —@CBossTDN

Nasvhille Colt a High-Water Mark for Twelve Toes

Hernan Elicier spent nine years working with Danzel Brendemuehl's Classic Bloodstock and, following the horsewoman's death in 2023, he started his own consignment, Twelve Toes. The operation had its biggest sale to date when selling a colt by Nashville (hip 671) for $525,000 to St. Elias Stable Thursday in Ocala. Elicier had acquired the colt out of Closet Shopper (Tapit) on behalf of Robert Lambe–a longtime client of Brendemuehl's–for $90,000 at last year's Keeneland September sale.

Hip 671 | OBS/VidHorse

“Everything,” Elicier said when asked what he liked about the yearling. “He was a classy horse, very smart, with a nice eye.”

The bay colt worked a furlong during last week's under-tack show in :10 flat and his price tag Thursday was no surprise to Elicier.

“100%, I was expecting around that,” he said. “He's a really nice horse, smart, with a lot of class.”

Of the experience of watching his highest sale to date, Elicier called it, “Unbelievable.”

Twelve Toes enjoyed another pinhooking success earlier in the auction when an Epicenter filly (hip 63) sold for $250,000 to D.J. Stable. The filly had RNA'd for $45,000 at Keeneland in September and was purchased privately afterwards for $37,000, according to Elicier. —@JessMartiniTDN

 

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