Ocala Breeders' Sale at Calder Tuesday

- Tomorrow’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales selected two year old in training sale at Calder is the first such auction of the year, and features 207 hip numbers. At one point, I thought I’d be attending this sale to watch one or more of the four horses I own a (small)(very small) percentage of through a pinhooking partnership that purchased them at the Keeneland yearling sale last September go through the ring and bring hundreds of thousands of dollars of profit. However, the main candidate for this sale, a Deputy Minister colt we got for only $55,000, was sold privately at a price that made us all quite happy. Of the three remaining, the Vicar filly I mentioned in a previous post is a bit small and being reserved for the Timonium sale in May (Vicar got his first stakes horse on Saturday when Vicarage finished third in the Hutchenson). We also have a Real Quiet filly who the consignor feels is more suited for the turf and is being shopped privately, and a Tactical Cat colt being primed for the OBS sale in Ocala next month.

Glancing through the catalog pages, it seems that you won’t find produce of many upper echelon mares, and there are no foals of Fusaichi Pegasus or Storm Cat or Giant’s Causeway here. But some interesting “hips” nonetheless, and some first time sires of 2 year olds. One first-timer, Freud (Storm Cat) is actually a full brother to Giant’s Causeway with a modest race record who stands in New York for $5000 and has 4 foals here; I’d be interested to see how these turn out, given his bloodlines and bargain price. His Hip 183 (these links are to PDF downloads of the catalog pages and require Acrobat Reader) is a colt whose third dam is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner (Blue Grass Stakes) and current sire Menifee (Harlan), and his half-brother and Grade 1 winner (Hollywood Gold Cup)Desert Wine (Damascus)

Some possible highlights in the sale I found:

Hip 181 - Deputy Minister colt out of graded stakes winner Low Tolerance (Proud Truth), and a half brother to stakes winner Sazarac Jazz (Dixieland Band).

Hip 30 – Gone West colt out of graded stakes winner She’s a Devil Due (Devil His Due).

Hip 87 – First year sire Exchange Rate (Danzig) colt whose second dam foaled popular graded stakes winner (Fountain of Youth) Darn That Alarm (Jig Time) and his full stakes winning brothers Strong Performance and Jig Alarm. Exchange Rate won the G2 Tom Fool, getting the 7 furlongs in 1:21:1, and stands for $7500 in Florida.

Hip 190 – High Yield colt who’s a half brother to graded stakes winner Meadow Gem (Meadow Flight) and whose second dam foaled millionaire Kelly Kip (Kipper Kelly).

Hip 102 – Smoke Glacken colt whose second dam is graded stakes winner (Test) Cherokee Frolic (Cherokee Fellow), who is the dam of 11 winners and whose descendants include millionaire Smok-n Frolic (Smoke Glacken).

Hip 197 – Filly by Yes It’s True is a half-sister to Closing Argument (Successful Appeal) who entered the Derby picture with his win in the Holy Bull on Saturday.

Hip 140 – Hennessy colt whose second dam is Canadian 3 yo filly champion Hope for a Breeze (Briarctic) and from the family of graded stakes winner Dr. Kashnikow.

Hip 83 – Unbridled’s Song colt out of stakes winner Belle Nuit (Dr. Carter) and whose second dam begat 11 winners including multiple Grade 1 winner (Top Flight, Shuvee) Ms. Eloise (Nasty and Bold).

Hip 20 – Wild Rush colt whose second dam is the producer of Grade 1 winner (Fountain of Youth) Songandaprayer (Unbridled’s Song) and five other stakes horses.

Hip 37 – Wagon Limit colt is a full brother to Grade I winner (Hopeful) Silver Wagon.

Among the sires well-represented here by 2 yo’s from their first crop are Grade 1 winner (Cigar Mile) El Corredor (Mr. Greeley, $20,000 fee), Del Mar Futurity winner Forest Camp (Deputy Minister, $15,000), and multiple Grade 1 winner (Forego Hdcp, DeFrancis Memorial) Delaware Township (Notebook, $6,500)

Montbrook and More Than Ready have the most sales entrants, with seven each.

The above is just a sampling that I found just breezing through; I’m sure there are some other additional interesting prospects; feel free to add any you know of. The results of the two under-tack shows for the sale are here.