Thoughts from Ocala: 2-Year-Old Market

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Transcript

00:00In this final episode of our Thoughts from Ocala series, we ask consignors to give us

00:06their thoughts on the overall health of the market as the two-year-old sales season begins.

00:12It looks like it's going to be a decent season going by the traffic we're getting on the

00:15farm, visitors and what have you, people inspecting horses early, I'm expecting it to be quite

00:19a decent year.

00:21We're always a little nervous moving into the market, I mean, especially coming off

00:25a sale year like last year when the yearling prices were so high, there's always a little

00:32trepidation that maybe it won't carry forward.

00:35But having said that, the traffic at the farm has been stronger than it's been in quite

00:40some time, there's a lot of interest and, you know, people want to own racehorses, so

00:46cautiously optimistic, I would say.

00:49We're excited about the March catalogue, excited with the entries that we've received for the

00:54April sale, impressed with the quality of horses that people are bringing to the sale.

01:00Certainly the yearling market was strong and I really think that strength is going to continue

01:07through the two-year-old season.

01:10Same old story, you know, the markets have been great now for a while, you know, it's

01:15the same thing, it's polarized to the top, to the quality, there's nicer horses that

01:20just seem to jump through all the hoops at the two-year-old sale, which is very tough

01:23to do, much tougher than the yearling sales, there's so much is expected of these young

01:27babies, but if they do look the part, there's a great demand for them.

01:32The quality of the book for the March sale is tremendous, if you look at the sire lineup

01:38in that, it's kind of a who's who.

01:42You know, the March sale has produced a number of quality horses over the years, continues

01:49to do so, and I think buyers would be really happy with the selection that they'll have this year.

01:57I think it's going to stay strong, it seems like it's condensing down to just what people

02:01think is quality, so I think if you have what people perceive as quality, and you jump through

02:08all the hoops, that you're going to reap some great rewards.

02:11If you have a little issue vetting or something like that, it could really hurt you, but I

02:17think if you jump through the hoops, it's going to be a very strong marketplace.

02:21Well, I do believe that there's a flight to quality in the market, it has been that way

02:28for a while.

02:29I think last year we saw some middle market strength, we saw some horses getting moved

02:34with a little more ease than they were in previous years, I certainly hope that continues

02:39as the demand creeps up.

02:41Certainly not everybody can play at the top end, so there has to be some movement towards

02:46the middle.

02:47The Koreans have been a big part of the market for a number of years, and I think everybody

02:54was pleasantly surprised how well the market absorbed their absence.

03:01They're missed, we'd like to have them back, but domestically did a great job of picking

03:06up that slack.

03:08The yearly market was really strong, it looked like the weaning market was strong as well,

03:15so hopefully that'll carry on to the two-year-old sales.

03:18I know trainers need horses, so hopefully it's a good year.