Epicenter colt tops Ocala Breeders’ Sale at $1.95 million

A $1.95 million Epicenter colt turned the opening day of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale into a market statement. Hip 289, a big bay from Wavertree Stables, became the first million-dollar juvenile of the 2026 sale and the lone seven-figure horse on Tuesday, after a sharp :09 4/5 eighth at the under-tack show sent the bidding into a different gear.

Justin Casse and Ben McElroy bought the colt for Amo Racing and undisclosed partners, and once the price cleared seven figures, it kept moving in $100,000 jumps. That matters because it suggested this was not just auction theater. Buyers were reacting to the same combination horsemen always chase in April, size, speed and enough presence to make elite money keep coming. For Epicenter, the result also gave his sire line a loud marker in a market that has been willing to pay for the right 2-year-old profile.

The colt’s pedigree backed up the flash. He was bred in Kentucky by Wynnstay Inc. and H. Allen Poindexter, and he is the second foal out of Spanx Legacy, a winning Animal Kingdom mare who is a full sister to multiple graded-placed Delta’s Kingdom. He had been bought for $275,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale, so the pinhook return was obvious. The real question now is not whether he sold well, but whether the speed that lit up the sale will translate when he faces pressure in a race that matters.

Opening day said the broader market is still hot enough to absorb that kind of price. The session grossed $24,578,000 from 159 horses sold, with an average of $154,579 and a median of $80,000. Forty-seven horses RNA’d, a 22.8 percent buy-back rate. OBS said the average was the highest opening-session number since the sale’s record run in 2025, and the $1.95 million bid was the fourth-highest ever at its Spring/April auction, trailing only the $2.2 million Gun Runner colt that topped a 2023 session.

Wavertree Stables was the leading consignor of the day, with three sold for $2.455 million. For Justin Casse, the purchase carried extra weight because his father, Norman Casse, was a founding member of OBS. For everyone else watching the ring, the message was simpler: the right colt with the right breeze can still make buyers forget restraint, and this one now becomes a name to track on the road from April sales ring to the races that really matter.