Because of the threat of Tropical Storm Milton officials have rescheduled the OBS October Yearling Sale to start a day early. The sale will begin at 3 p.m. ET Oct. 7 with Hips 1-200 to go through the ring. Hips 201-595 will sell Oct. 8 beginning at 11:30 a.m.
"Even with an on-and-off rain, we've been busy in the barn area," said OBS director of sales Tod Wojciechowski. "We made the decision this morning to move the sale earlier, starting tomorrow afternoon. The difficult thing about making those decisions is we don't know when the storm is going to be.
"With an abundance of caution for horses and humans, we figured getting it out of the way would be best."
In response to the unforeseen circumstances, the commission on buy-backs will be reduced to 2.5% according to OBS.
Recent graduates of the October Yearling Sale include grade 1-winning millionaire Trikari. The son of Oscar Performance sold in 2022 to Amerman Racing for $27,500. He was consigned by Ordonez Thoroughbreds. Trained by Graham Motion, Trikari has won three graded stakes in 2024, including the American Turf Stakes (G2T), the Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes (G1T), and the Secretariat Stakes (G2T).
Kinza, a two-time graded stakes winner, also sold in 2022. Grassroots Training and Sales purchased the daughter of Carpe Diem for $30,000, and later sold her at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic 2-year-olds in Training Sale for $350,000 to Michael Lund Petersen. This year she won the Las Virgenes (G3) and Santa Ysabel (G3) stakes.
The catalog includes yearlings by a variety of sires including Vekoma and Complexity ; who each are among the leading first-crop sires. There are yearlings from the first crops of Maxfield , Beau Liam and Rock Your World . There are many Florida sires represented in the catalog such as Leinster , St Patrick's Day, Curlin's Honor , and Gunnevera .
"We have a good catalog, a well-represented sire list of tried and true stallions and newer stallions," said Wojciechowski.
Last year, the two-day sale grossed $7,670,600 including private sales. 384 yearlings sold from the 587 on offer. 203 horses failed to meet their reserve, resulting in an RNA rate of 34.6%.
A colt by Mitole —Midnight Magic, by Midnight Lute, topped last year's October sale, selling for $250,000 to Quarter Pole Enterprises from Sue Vacek's consignment. Now named Southern Gentleman and listed as a ridgling, the sale topper went on to sell at the March OBS 2-year-olds in Training Sale for $725,000 to Speedway Stables, from the consignment of Eddie Woods. He breezed an eighth of a mile in :9 4/5.
Quarter Pole Enterprises was the leading buyer by gross sales, with two purchases totaling $400,000. Grassroots Training and Sales bought a total of nine head for $270,700. The leading consignor was Beth Bayer, selling 40 of the 53 yearlings offered for a total of $822,700.
"We were busy on the grounds today, we've created a compressed time table," Wojciechowski said. "In this day and age with walking videos and online info, certainly there will be opportunity to buy horses."
The online catalog can be viewed here.
