BY CYNTHIA MCFARLAND                                                                                                                              

OCALA, FL—Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company ushers in 2026 with its Winter Mixed sale on Tuesday, January 27. Offered in a single session, the sale features short yearlings, broodmares and broodmare prospects with 307 horses offered, including supplements. 

“We have a good rooster of sires for yearlings and we’re excited about that,” OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski said. “The decoupling talk has been a difficult thing to deal with for the breeding industry but as we forge ahead, we have some very nice horses in the sale.”

Sires from both Florida and Kentucky are well represented. Sale yearlings are by such sires as OBS sale graduates and graded stakes winners Colonel Liam, who stands at Ocala Stud, Bucchero, champion two-year-old Corniche, Goldencents, Kantharos and Mitole.

The catalog also features yearlings by stallions ranked among the top 10 leading first-crop sires, including Yaupon, Essential Quality, Independence Hall, Charlatan and Leinster.

Also catalogued are yearlings by stallions atop the Florida Leading Sires list—Khozan (Ocala Stud), Valiant Minister (Bridlewood Farm) and Win Win Win (Ocala Stud).  

Among the broodmare consignments is a daughter of perennial leading sire and OBS sale graduate Into Mischief.

Mares are offered in foal to such stallions as Dornach, Doppelganger (Pleasant Acres Stallions), Khozan, Leinster, Midshipman, Verifying (Pleasant Acres Stallions) and Waiting.

The year is young, but the OBS Winter Mixed Sale is already represented by a stakes-winning graduate this month. Dazzling Dame recently won the $145,500 Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct on January 3, increasing her earnings to $240,525. The multiple stakes-winning Girvin filly is a two-time OBS sale grad, first selling for $65,000 in the 2024 OBS Winter Mixed sale from the Hare Hill consignment. Owned by Respect the Valleys LLC, Dazzling Dame is trained by Brittany Russell.

At the 2025 Winter Mixed Sale, 212 head sold for a gross of $3,093,700. Lisa McGreevy’s Abbie Road Farm was leading consignor, selling 25 horses for a total of $528,200. 

The 2025 sales topper was Last Leaf, a 6-year-old daughter of Not This Time. Consigned by G. Martinez Training as agent, the mare was purchased for $140,000 by Senor’s Senorita’s.

The highest-priced yearling at the 2025 sale was a $97,000 McKinzie filly purchased by Lambholm as agent, from the consignment of Francis and Barbara Vanlangendonck’s Summerfield.

Area horseman and long-time consignor at OBS mixed sales, Bobby Jones has been a commercial breeder for more than four decades. He has 23 horses in his Bobby Jones Equine consignment this January. Four are mares ready to breed, two of which have first-time winners this month; and the rest are yearlings.

Among the yearlings in the Bobby Jones Equine consignment is the North Marion Equine yearling, Hip 3, a Florida-bred colt by Win Win Win out of Perfect Biscuit, by Political Force. In 2025, Win Win Win ranked seventh among Florida Leading Sires with progeny earnings of $2,226,911.

North Marion Equine is the hands-on agriculture program at North Marion High School near Ocala, designed to give students firsthand experience in the horse industry.

“There is no other high school level equine program offered anywhere,” Jones said. “This is by far the best thing I’ve done in my career. These kids are learning and going on into agricultural and equine businesses. There are so many opportunities for them in the horse world whether they go on to college or not.”

North Marion Equine raises and sells one to two yearlings each year. Stallion seasons are donated by local stud farms. Money from the sale of yearlings goes back into the equine program’s account.

Jones has been involved with North Marion Equine since he first donated a pregnant mare to the program in 2018. The program later bought a second mare with proceeds from its yearling sales.

Students come to his farm to learn about all aspects of horse care and also work with Jones’ seasoned sales help at the sale. Jones consigns the program’s yearlings without charging any commission. Up to this sale, the program has sold eight yearlings (all consigned by Bobby Jones Equine) for a total of $88,000. 

Held in conjunction with the Winter Mixed sale, Horses of Racing Age and 2-year-olds are offered through the OBSOnline site.

This aspect of the sale went digital as an online sale only last year. That trend continues this January with 16 horses catalogued.

Bidding in the OBSOnline January sale began on January 26 and ends on January 30.

“One unique thing about the online sale is that we offered consignors an opportunity to come to the sale grounds for an official breeze on January 22,” Wojciechowski said, adding that consignors could stay on the grounds to show their horse if they chose. 

“We have a number of horses in the sale that are at the track, but most of the ones at the breeze show are unraced horses displaying their ability,” he said.

Buyers can view the horses’ media at https://obsonline.com, including under tack videos, walking videos and conformation photos. Create an account or register to bid for the sale at the same website.

The 2026 OBS Winter Mixed sale takes place on Tuesday, January 27, beginning at 11 a.m. ET. View the full catalog, including supplements, at https://obssales.com.

Return to the January 24 issue of Wire to Wire