Gross, Median Increase During OBS Spring Sale's First Session

The Ocala Breeders' Sales Co.'s spring juvenile auction got off to a solid start Monday in Central Florida, with the number sold and gross revenue rising sharply. Meanwhile, the median price increased slightly, and the average price suffered only a small decline.

Monsterontheloose, a son of More Than Ready  , topped the opening session at $175,000 while six other horses brought six-figure prices.

The number sold of 205 and the gross of $5,323,500 represented upswings of 18.5% and 16.5%, respectively, from a year ago. The average fell 1.7% to $25,968, and the median rose 3.1% to $17,000. The buy-back rate advanced from 27.3% last year to 28.8% this year.

Florida pinhooker Murray Smith, consignor of Monsterontheloose, enjoyed yet another success during this year's 2-year-old selling season. Smith sold the Barretts March sale-topper, a $1.9-million Songandaprayer   – What a Knight colt named What a Song, and she also sold the Keeneland sale topper, an $800,000 Maria's Mon – Kopenhagen colt.

Monsterontheloose is out of the 11-year-old Great Above mare No Mud On Me, who is a half-sister to added-money winners Bear On and Love Triangle. Purchased by another Florida pinhooker, David McKathan, for $60,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July select yearling sale, the More Than Ready colt worked a quarter in :21 3/5 seconds prior to the OBS auction. Harry J. Aleo was his buyer.

Last year's first-session figures were 173 horses sold for a gross of $4,569,100, an average of $26,411, and a median of $16,500.

The OBS sale runs through Thursday, with each session beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT.