With Keeneland January concluded, I am heading to Ocala for the OBS January breeding sale.  Right.  If you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.  With January all but finished, i can't wait to see my two year olds at the Eddie Woods Training Center just West of Ocala.  Two year old training season is just about to become two year old selling season and it is right around the corner...

We sell about a dozen horses this year in the two year old sales.  It's an exciting atmosphere.  The two year old sale is more like the NFL combines than any other thoroughbred sale.  The horses sprint and generally speaking the fastest horse, breezes the BEST.  It is a pretty simple equation on the surface.

Enter in pedigree, surface, maturity, rider error, trainer, vet reports and a host of other variables and you quickly see why speed is not the only factor. 

I was thinking of the graded stakes horses we have bought and their prices and it makes for an interesting study of the two year old market.

OBS Feb Grad R Loyal Man was a $80,000 yearling buy and sold for $125,000 at the OBS Sale when it was held at Calder.  Real nice horse, breezed well, vetted well and I think sold cheaply because his pedigree was light.  He was a stakes winner and Grade 3 placed at 2.

Fasig Miami graded grads include our first pinhook Buy The Sport.  She's an example of pedigree power.  An 82,000 yearling resold for $155,000, Buy the Sport was a NY Bred purchased from the same sale we sold Funny Cide at.  She was profitable and she sold well, nearly doubling her purchase price.  She was a good buy for her owners although she was not blazing fast at the two year old sale.  She had a nice proven female side and a solid sire.   She finished Grade 1 placed and is already a stakes producer.

Thunderous Mood is an example of pedigree power also.  By Storm Cat and out of an Alydar mare he cost 400k as a yearling and was one of the best bred horses in the Miami Sale, but he was not the fastest.  He brought $575k there and raced successfully in France placing in a G3.

Marcavelly also came from the Miami sale.  We had purchased him at Keeneland for 210,000 and sold him after he rna'ed at the Miami sale for 275k.  He vetted well, breezed well and had a nice pedigree, but he was not the fastest and it hurt his sales price.  He was a stakes winner at two and won two Grade 3's.  Not bad...

OBS March grad Delicate Dynamite is one of my favorites.  We purchased her for 25,000 from the annual draft of Smiser West - one of KY's breeding legends.  When she breezed slowly, all bets were off and i sold her privately for 30,000 to client Todd Creek.  She was big sound and immature.  She was a stakes winner at 2, Gr 3 placed and earned over $360k.  WOW!!

Lord Carmen a 30k yearling purchase got no attention at OBS March but we did sell him later in the year on the private market.  His pedigree and breeze must have been insufficient to buyers... on the track he won multiple stakes, placed in a Grade 3 turf race and has earned over 300k and races to this day.  What a fun horse he is!

Keeneland April grad Grace Anatomy breezed well enough and was very popular with her strong pedigree, but vetting slowed her sale price down significantly.  We bought her for 150k and sold her for 195k.  There was a lot more interest than that for her but unfortunately, some of the buyers backed off and missed this filly who placed in Keeneland's G1 Alcibiades.

The bottom line is don't miss horses who breeze well, but a tick slower than the top group.  Nearly all of these horses breezed sufficiently fast, but not fast enough for the market.  There ia always serious value in the two year old sale market, you just have to look for it.

Make sure and give our 2010 crop a hard look, we'll try and make it obvious by getting a few bullets, but don't forget to look if we miss by a tick.