FTBOA Announces to $1 Million Florida Sire Racing Incentive Program

BY CYNTHIA MCFARLAND

OCALA, FL—The 2026 juvenile sale season gets underway on March 10-12 with the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company March Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training. The three-day auction features a catalog of 816 horses, which is almost identical to the numbers last March.

“Once again, I’m excited about the horses consignors are bringing to the sale. The catalog is just ripe with quality. The horses’ performance on the track only adds to the quality,” OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski said.

“The sire list is comparable to any 2-year-old sale in the U.S. at the upper reaches of the general sires list,” he said. “Among the first-year sires we have horses by Flightline, Golden Pal and Cyberknife, to just name a few.”

The catalog features 2-year-olds by nine of the 10 stallions currently atop the North American Leading Sires list—Nyquist, Into Mischief, Uncle Mo, Gun Runner, Oscar Performance, Practical Joke, Munnings, Not This Time and Constitution.

Buyers should take note of 2-year-old Florida-breds eligible for the new $1 million Florida Sire Racing Incentive program announced in February by the Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association.

FSS-eligible juveniles will earn an additional $25,000 when they win maiden special weight, allowance, allowance optional claiming and stakes at Gulfstream Park and Tampa Bay Downs in 2026. The FTBOA will pay $20,000 to the owner and $5,000 will go to the breeder of these winners.

Under tack shows were held at the OBS track on March 4 – 7.

“We’re always trying to add another layer of safety, so we put a few new measures in place this year,” Wojciechowski said.

This included restricting use of the crop, so a rider is not permitted to strike the horse with their hands off the reins before, during or after the breeze.

Starting with this sale, all horses participating in the under-tack show are required to have a veterinary document stating they are suitable to perform. An entry without an affirming statement will be scratched from the sale. OBS has always had a staff veterinarian on the track and monitoring horses leading up to the under-tack show, so the requirement of a veterinary statement is in addition to these existing precautions.

“We’re always looking to do things better and to evolve, so we just feel like that was a natural forward step,” Wojciechowski said.

At the 2025 March sale, 432 juveniles sold for a total of $65,660,500, bringing an average price of $151,992 and a median price of $70,000.

The year is young, but four graduates from the 2025 March sale have already won stakes in 2026. This includes Dazzling Dame (Busanda Stakes at Aqueduct); Hometown Bound (Turfway Prevue Stakes at Turfway Park); Obliteration (Renaissance Stakes at Oaklawn Park); and Florida-bred Strategic Risk (Smarty Jones Stakes at Oaklawn Park).

Last year’s record-setting $3 million March sale topper was Brant, a Kentucky-bred colt by Gun Runner out of Tynan, by Liam’s Map. Consigned by Eddie Woods, the colt was purchased by Donato Lanni, agent for Zedan Racing.

Trained by Bob Baffert, Brant wasted no time becoming a graded stakes winner. With two wins and one third in his three starts as a 2-year-old, the gray colt won the Del Mar Futurity (G1) in his second start and has earnings of $408,000 going into Saturday’s San Felipe presented by DK Horse (G1). Brant was an Eclipse Awards finalist for champion 2-year-old male.

Brant is one of seven Grade 1 winners in 2025 that came out of the OBS March sale. He joins Argos, Florida-bred Bentornato, Sandman, Scottish Lassie, Velocity and White Abarrio with Grade 1 victories last year.

Top Line Sales was leading consignor at the 2025 March sale, selling 22 head for $6,954,000. Owned by James “Jimbo” and Torie Gladwell, Top Line Sales also sold the third highest-priced horse of the sale, a filly by Good Magic out of Rose Mine, who brought a final bid of $1.1 million from Kimmel & Sallusto for Flanagan Racing, LLC.

“We’re hoping to have as strong a group of horses as we did in 2025,” Torie Gladwell said. “We have the same riders and the same sales help from last year. It’s just an amazing team we’ve put together; they enjoy being part of the operation and it reflects the quality. We’ve talked to multiple buyers coming in who are optimistic and have money to spend. Overall, I think it should be a strong market.”

Gladwell notes that many juvenile buyers come to the sales looking for horses by freshmen sires, but when she and Jimbo are buying yearlings, their priority is to find promising athletic individuals, whether by proven sires or young stallions.

“When we’re buying horses, we don’t necessarily focus on freshman sires, but there’s that unknown and people at the 2-year-old sales will gravitate to those, especially if they knew the sire line,” she said.

“This sale, we have horses by some really good freshmen sires — Drain the Clock, Nashville, Golden Pal, Jackie’s Warrior, and Life is Good,” Gladwell said. “We also have a Curlin colt with a huge pedigree, who could do very well, and a nice Uncle Mo. Unfortunately, there aren’t very many of those left since he passed away.”

Top Line Sales also consigns with Fasig-Tipton juvenile sales, but Gladwell says OBS is close to home and heart.

“We focus on OBS March and April sales,” she said. “We have the same quality in both the March and April sales; it’s just a matter of which horses are ready when.”

The full catalog, photos and videos can be viewed at https://obssales.com/

Sessions begin at 11 a.m. ET each day of the sale. Hip numbers 1-272 sell on Tuesday, March 10, while hip numbers 273-544 go through the ring on Wednesday, March 11, and the final session on Thursday, March 12 features hip numbers 545-816.

Online bidding is offered during the live sale. Buyers can register for bidding approval at https://obssales.com/obs-online-bidding-2/