Eddie Woods

By Christie DeBernardis & Jessica Martini The four-day Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale got off to a strong start Tuesday. A colt from the first crop of Horse of the Year Gun Runner (Hip 118) was the day's hottest commodity, bringing $850,000 from Donato Lanni, acting on behalf of Michael Lund Petersen. Hip 118 was one of 181 juveniles to sell for a gross of $17,829,500. The average was $98,506 and the median was $50,000. Of the 304 catalogued, 225 were offered with 44 horses leaving the ring unsold...

A colt by Violence (hip 641) became the seventh horse of the week to work in under :10 seconds when he secured the furlong bullet time of :9 4/5 during Thursday's fourth session of the under-tack show ahead of next week's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training. The bay colt is consigned to the Spring sale by Raul Reyes's King's Equine as agent for his breeder, Aaron and Marie Jones LLC. The colt will be making his second trip through the sales ring next week in...

The under-tack show for next week's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, delayed a day by Sunday's stormy weather, got underway Monday in Central Florida with 13 juveniles sharing the bullet furlong time of :10 flat and a filly by Violence turning in the day's fastest quarter-mile breeze. Eddie Woods consigns hip 107, a daughter of Violence out of the unraced Royal Paradise (Unbridled's Song). The bay filly claimed the session's quarter-mile bullet time of :20 3/5. "I was expecting a good work for her," Woods...

HALLANDALE BEACH, FL - A day after watching the horses perform on the racetrack, buyers were out in full force at the sales barns Tuesday in preparation for the return of the Fasig-Tipton Gulfstream Sale of Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training, which will be held in the track's paddock Wednesday. Under late-morning overcast skies and windy conditions, trainer Bob Baffert and bloodstock agent Donato Lanni were making the rounds at the sales barns, as were fellow Southern California conditioners Simon Callaghan and Paddy Gallagher. The local training bench was represented by...

by Brian DiDonato and Steve Sherack With the end of the coronavirus pandemic seemingly in sight, and both buyers and sellers eager to return to some semblance of normalcy, the opener of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training featured borderline euphoric trade from start to finish. A total of 160 head changed hands Tuesday for gross receipts of $18,482,500 at an average of $115,516 and a median of $62,500. The RNA rate as of Tuesday evening stood at 20%. While exact year-to-year comparisons are somewhat...

OCALA, FL- Hardy attempts at optimism were made at last year's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March Sale, but an unmistakably ominous atmosphere hung over the grounds. Before the first hip had even reached the walking ring in Ocala, both Keeneland's April Sale and Fasig-Tipton's Gulfstream Sale had been canceled as the tentacles of the Coronavirus pandemic tightened their grip around the nation. There was an unforgettable discord between the then-normalcy of crowded local restaurants and stores while sporting event and festival cancellations seemed to happen between the start of each...

As the calendar inches inexorably towards March and a spring-long series of 2-year-olds in training sales, consignors are putting the finishing touches on juveniles heading to auction, paying particular attention to youngsters representing their stallions first crop to hit the track. The TDN is reaching out to consignors with 2-year-olds heading to the sales rings at OBS and Gulfstream Park next month to find out which freshman sires have impressed them. EDDIE WOODS Prolific consignor Eddie Woods has 24 juveniles catalogued for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's March 2-Year-Olds in...

It's a philosophy that sustains a stable of Rockets--but it's not rocket science. Anything but, according to Frank Fletcher. "First, you really want to work hard," he says. "Number two, you got to have a stroke of luck. And, number three, when you get lucky and start being successful, you need to surround yourself with people a lot smarter than you are." Let's deal with those in reverse order. Because Fletcher says that the horse we want to discuss is all about the third rule; about the excellence of his...

A reshuffled and rearranged juvenile sales season like no other came to a conclusion with the final session of the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's July 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale Thursday and, with a market left shaken by the fallout of the ongoing global pandemic, numbers were predictably down at the three-day auction. "Certainly the numbers were off comparatively, but it's hard to compare this to other years with so much that has gone on," said OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski said. "There were some bright spots...

The six-session under-tack show for next week's Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's July 2-Year-Olds and Horses of Racing Age Sale began Monday and, with temperatures quickly rising into the upper 80's, the day's last of three sets was twice delayed as fierce rainstorms swept through the area. A filly by Shackleford (hip 15), working early in the day's first set, turned in the session's fastest quarter-mile time of :20 4/5. Consigned by Jesse Hoppel's Coastal Equine, the bay filly is out of Peace Queen (Indian Charlie), a half-sister to multiple graded...

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis The Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, an auction most people seemed happy could even be held following all of the uncertainties of the global pandemic, concluded its four-day run in Central Florida with a pair of seven-figure transactions book-ending the session. Early in the day, Kaleem Shah purchased a son of Quality Road for $1.25 million from the Wavertree Stables consignment and, with only a handful of lots left to offer, Larry Best secured a colt by Speighster for...

Ciaran Dunne's Wavertree Stables was on fire Friday at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training breeze show. The Irishman sent out one of two :20 2/5 bullet breezers, as well as four juveniles who worked in :20 3/5. "It was a great day," Dunne said. "I don't want to say it was unexpected because it wasn't, but it is very rare that everything goes exactly as you hoped. We felt we were loaded coming into today. We had some nice horses throughout the week, but...