Record Average at Calder

- The number of horses sold and the gross and median were down, but the average sale price of $139,430 for the 93 two-year olds sold was a record for the Ocala Breeders sale at Calder on Tuesday. Great job by Bloodhorse.com’s Deirdre Biles, who had the three sales toppers picked on top in order – does she get any kind of triple payoff for that?

The sales topper is by Forest Camp (the sire of Your Tent Or Mine). A $140,000 weanling purchase at Keeneland November (out of a Holy Bull mare), he was a $160,000 yearling buy-back in September, and a $650,000 two-year old here, nice! Bringing $525,000 was a Pulpit colt out of Queens Wild, a daughter of Wild Applause and a half-sister to Eastern Echo, Yell, and Roar. He was purchased for $90,000 as a yearling just last September. "He was real immature when I bought him," pinhooker [Carl] Bowling said. "He had a skin rash all over him, and his hair was real fuzzy. And then he really bloomed and made a beautiful horse.” And increased his value seven times over in just five months.

The third highest seller was a filly by Montbrook, still standing in Florida, at Ocala Stud, for $20,000 in 2006. This was a homebred, and she brought $460,000. She’s out of Velvet Choaker (On To Glory), and is a full-brother to stakes winner Royal Lad. And Ocala also had the 4th best seller, another Montbrook homebred; this one ($435,000) out of NY-bred stakes winner Unbridled Bliss.

The sale was marred when a Forest Camp filly who worked a sale-best ten second eighth of a mile flipped, landed head first, and had to be euthanized. She was expected to be one of the sales toppers for owner Don Graham, who paid $42,000 for her as a yearling. Graham told the Form that he’s been in the business for 35 years, and listening to him, it’s obvious he’s learned to roll with the punches in this business. "The one thing I tried to stress is that this was nobody's fault.... It was just an accident. You just have to put it in perspective. A horse you can replace. Fortunately, no humans were hurt."

- Wayne Lukas says of Folklore that the Santa Ynez "stressed her a little more than I would have liked." [DRF] She hasn’t worked since, but may do so this week.