Will Take Charge Filly brings $150,000 at OBS October yearling sale

By Sarah Mace

A filly by freshman sire Will Take Charge bred by Pine Ridge Stables Ltd. topped the 52 New York-breds who sold at this week’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co, yearling sale.

Consigned by Stuart Morris, Agent XXVII, the dark bay/brown filly sold to Three Diamonds Farm in the opening session of the two-day auction for $150,000. She emerged as the co-seventh top-seller of the sale and third top-selling filly overall.

The format of the year’s OBS sale was familiar – a two-day auction beginning with a select session followed by a longer open session, but for the first time the annual sale was not held in August.

Renovations at the OBS sales pavilion gave the sales company the impetus to make some changes. Management felt the move to October would eliminate the problem of competing for attention during the crowded month of August, capitalize on better weather and offer a better option for buyers who had not yet filled their orders for the year.

The October experiment seems to have been a success as the sale saw a 20% increase in average yearling price and 14% gain in median. In fact, New York-breds in the sale struggled to keep pace. The New York-bred average price came in at $14,183, lower than the $20,001 sale average. The New York-bred median of $6,250 was, likewise, below $8,000 sale median. The 75 New York-breds at the sale turned in a 30.7% buyback percentage higher than the sale buyback rate of 26.9%.

The top-seller was clearly a standout. The dark bay or brown individual who was foaled at Waldorf Farm in North Chatham on April 23, 2016, had been offered last month at the Keeneland September yearling sale, but RNA’d for $72,000. Less than a month later, she brought $150,000 in Ocala as Hip 195[2].

The Will Take Charge filly is the second registered foal out of Choice Pearl, a Kentucky-bred placed runner by Any Given Saturday, who was purchased by Pine Ridge Stables at the 2013 Keeneland November sale for $165,000, The mare has a 3-year-old by Giant’s Causeway named Packed House, who has not started, but turned in a pair of works at Churchill Downs in August.

Choice Pearl, out of stakes winner Horns Grey, is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Awesome Humor and her half-sister Surf Club is the dam of Grade 1 winner and sire Emcee. Grade 1 winner Constitution is out of Baffled, a half-sister to Emcee.

The next stop on the yearling sales calendar will be in Kentucky for the Fasig-Tipton October sale on October 23-26.

The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga fall sale will take place on Monday, October 16. Click here[3] to review New York-bred hips for both sales.

Source URL: https://www.nytbreeders.org/news/2017/10/12/will-take-charge-filly-brings-150000-at-obs-october-yearling-sale/

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