Woods Sees Changes Coming

By Jessica Martini
   The Keeneland April sale was the third select sale of the season, following Barretts March and Fasig-Tipton Florida. While figures remained strong at Barretts, the Florida sale suffered significant setbacks with numerous outs and only 47 horses of 157 catalogued finding new homes. By contrast, the record-setting OBS March sale, with a catalogue of 411 saw 204 sell. 
    “There is a danger of select sales fading away,” consignor Eddie Woods admitted Sunday. “I don’t think it’s going to happen just yet, but there is a danger of them fading away. And that is coming from a consignors point of view.” 
    Woods acknowledged it was important for consignors to have different venues at which to sell horses. 
    “We can’t compete in the same forum with our own horses,” he said. “It’s hard enough we have to compete with our neighbors for the same dollar with equivalent horses, but when they are in the same shedrow, it’s even more difficult. You need Barretts, OBS, Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton so we can spot our top-end horses in different places. When they  are all stuck in the same shedrow, somebody is getting penalized.” 
    Still, as OBS continues to churn out impressive results, travelling to a select sale becomes a harder decision. 
    “Sitting back and looking at it from a seller’s point of view and seeing how it’s gone, we’re having trouble talking people into taking their horses into the select sales anymore,” Woods explained. “Now we’re having guys who couldn’t spell Ocala once upon a time now want to sell all their horses in Ocala.” 
    Woods made the correlation for Keeneland’s now defunct July yearling sale. 
    “The Keeneland July sale went away, it was supposed to go away on a temporary basis, but we won’t be around to see it again,” Woods explained. “Because it’s turned the September sale into the greatest yearling sale in the world. And we’re heading the same way with the Ocala sales, between the March and April sales. They are getting bigger and better and a lot of people feel now in Ocala, especially the smaller guys, they don’t have to travel anymore to sell their product.”