Early Voting colt tops OBS June opener at $410,000

The first horse to make a real statement at the OBS June sale was not the flashiest pedigree on paper, but the kind of 2-year-old buyers keep chasing when they want immediate return. Hip 168, a colt by Early Voting, topped the opening session at $410,000 on June 16 in Ocala, Florida, when trainer Greg Compton, for MAG Racing Stables, went to the top of the market after the juvenile flashed enough in the under-tack show to fit the profile of a fast-turnaround runner.

That result gave the opening day of the three-day Ocala Breeders’ Sales June 2-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale an instant headline and reinforced a market theme that has been building all spring: buyers are rewarding horses with speed, scope and a believable path to the races. The colt was consigned by Julie Davies, and Compton said the horse was good-looking and had shown a strong move in the breeze, while also pointing to the momentum Early Voting is building with his early runners. Compton said the colt would head to his Delaware Park string.

Early Voting’s rise matters because it gives this sale a different kind of commercial logic. A son of Gun Runner, Early Voting entered stud in 2023 at Taylor Made Stallions in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and BloodHorse’s Stallion Register listed his 2026 fee at $12,500. The same source said he had three rising stars out of four winners and ranked first among first-crop sires by percentage of winners to starters, a profile that fits the kind of horse that can move quickly from sale-ring buzz to racetrack impact.

The session backed up the appetite for that type of horse. A total of 163 horses changed hands, including private sales, for gross receipts of $9,066,000, with an average of $55,620 and a median of $30,000. OBS said 239 of the 327 cataloged juveniles were accepted into the ring and 76 failed to meet their reserves, producing a 31.8 percent buy-back rate. That is a useful measure of how selective the market still was even as it paid up for the best individuals.

There was spending beyond the topper, too. BloodHorse reported that a Mo Donegal filly, Hip 93, brought $370,000, another sign that buyers were willing to stretch for well-bred horses with enough physical appeal to match their pedigree. Compared with last year’s 25.5 percent first-session buy-back rate and the 17.1 percent two-day cumulative figure from 2025, the June opener showed a market still active, but one that is clearly sorting hardest for horses it believes can be live runners soonest.