OBS Breeze Show Concludes

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's under-tack preview for the April Sale of 2-Year-Olds concluded Saturday, with a pair of horses sharing the quarter-mile bullet time of :20 2/5, tying the fastest time of the six-session preview.

First to hit that mark Saturday was hip 1127, a daughter of Ghostzapper consigned by Off the Hook, LLC.

“We knew she was fast, but obviously you can never predict a time like that,” Off the Hook's Joe Appelbaum said of the filly's :20 2/5 work. “It was certainly off the charts.”

The filly is out of stakes winner Mighty Eros (Freud), a half-sister to stakes-placed Think I'm Hooked (Hook and Ladder), as well as to the dam of stakes winner Miss Narcissist (Freud).

“She looks like her father a lot,” Appelbaum continued. “She is a little bit bigger than average, but compact and moves very much like Ghostzapper did.”

The April sale, which has set records during its last three renewals, has established itself as the bellwether auction of the juvenile sales season, according to Appelbaum.

“It has really become the parallel of Keeneland September,” Appelbaum said of the April sale. “It is the 2-year-old market and the sales before and after are really complimentary.”

Top-end offerings have been the driving force in the auction market over the past year, but Appelbaum is hopeful that the April sale can attract a broader buying bench.

“We are dealing with a market where there is a very strong trade for the high-end horses,” he explained. “There is a lot of action on the more value-oriented horses. The ones in the middle you've got to really work hard to sell. Hopefully, here at April we'll have a wider range of buyers and that will make that middle market easier than it might have been at the first two sales.”

Also working in :20 2/5 Saturday was hip 1214, a filly by Quality Road. Consigned by Q Bar J Thoroughbreds, LLC, the youngster is out of Over Andover (War Chant), a half-sister to graded stakes winner Called to Serve (Afleet Alex).

Hip 790, a colt by Shackleford, was the first to hit the :20 2/5 mark when he worked during Thursday's fourth session of the preview. Consigned by Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables, the bay colt is out of Expressive Diva (In Excess {Ire}), a half-sister to Grade I winner Ringaskiddy (Slewvescent).

“He's advertised himself as a good horse all year,” Dunne said of the speedy juvenile. “We expected something special when we brought him over here and we weren't disappointed.”

Dunne called the impending April sale, “business as usual.”

“April has always had good horses,” he said. “There has always been the fall-out from the select sales with a smattering of pedigree and quality throughout. And then there are also the talented athletes that pinhookers are so good at rooting out–horses who wouldn't necessarily have ticked all the boxes as yearlings, but who show up here.”

Over the six sessions of works, 25 juveniles shared the fastest furlong time of :9 4/5, with 10 of those coming in Saturday's finale.

The OBS April Sale begins Tuesday and continues through Friday with sessions beginning daily at 10:30 a.m.