by Pete Denk

Total sales dropped 40.3% and all economic indicators were down at the opening-day select session of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. August yearling sale on Monday.

OBSC reported 115 horses from 200 offered as sold for total receipts of $5,778,000. On opening day last year, 167 horses sold for $9,679,500. The buy-back rate increased from 25.1% last year to 42.5%.

Average price dropped 13.3% to $50,243. Monday’s median of $40,000 was a 20% decline from last year’s select-session record of $50,000.

“When you go over 40% on the buy-back rate, that’s the number that is most bothersome,” said Tom Ventura, director of sales for OBSC.

Dr. Robert Fishman of Wynnewood, Pennsylvania, purchased the $200,000 session topper, a Macho Uno filly out of Top of the League, by Lite the Fuse. Consigned by Hidden Brook, agent for breeder Adena Springs, the Macho Uno filly was one of eight yearlings to reach six-figure prices on Monday, compared with 20 during last year’s first session.

Fishman, a retired doctor, purchased the filly on behalf of longtime client William Roebling of Princeton, New Jersey, via phone bidding. Fishman said he was a fan of Top of the League, who crossed the line first in each of her two lifetime starts but was disqualified from a stakes win. She subsequently was injured and retired before a planned start in the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).

Fishman said he attempted buy Top of the League from Adena Springs when she was carrying the Macho Uno filly, but his offer was declined.

“I’ve followed this filly from the time she was born,” Fishman said. “I got nothing but absolutely excellent reports. I couldn’t have heard better things about her. She’s racey. She’s an athlete, correct, has a great eye, and a super mind.”

“We ball-parked her around $175,000 or $200,000, and she was such a great filly. It was easy to get people to come and see her,” said Hidden Brook’s Chris Brothers. “She had all the parts. She was a standout, and Macho Uno has two horses in the Travers Stakes [Presented by Shadwell Farm (G1)] this Saturday.”

Joe Greeley’s Sabine Stable went to $165,000 for the day’s highest-priced colt, by Stormy Atlantic out of City of Dreams, by Carson City. Summerfield consigned the colt, as agent, and led all consignors with 25 yearlings sold for $1,121,500.

Named Dream of Atlantis, the colt will go to pinhooker Eddie Woods and be pointed to a select juvenile auction in 2009.

“He was my pick of the sale. That’s what they look like. That’s what racehorses look like,” Woods said. “The price was a hair more than I wanted to give for him, but I think he’s gorgeous.”

The select session will be followed by three days of open sales. Ventura said he hopes there will be enough demand for the open horses, which averaged $11,629 last year.

“The thing you worry about is you have 1,100 horses to sell in a very similar price range,” Ventura said.

For hip-by-hip results, click here.

Pete Denk is sales editor for Thoroughbred Times