The Winter Mixed Breed Racehorse Sale at Heritage Place in Oklahoma City, January 19-22, 2008, saw an average price increase of 17 percent over the 2007 sale. The average price of $10,099 on 712 head of Quarter Horses represented a 23 percent jump. In addition, just 11 percent of the 1,103-lot catalog, which also included Thoroughbreds and Paint Horses, were repurchases.

“I haven’t seen that many people there in ten years,” said Quarter Horse breeder Dee Raper. “The biggest thing was that buybacks were lower. That figure is normally about 25 percent.”

The sale topper at $125,000 – one of five lots to sell for $100,000 or more – was an in utero First Down Dash foal out of Runaway Wave, by Runaway Winner. Consigned by Lucas racing, it was purchased by Ray Willis of New Mexico. Four-year-old mare A Shot Of Glory brought $122,000 from Lyle Guillory. The Strawfly Special daughter was consigned by P.K. Thomas.

Gross sales of $8.7 million were down from $9 million in 2007, but there were 326 fewer lots to sell.

“We were down slightly in gross sales, but that was because we had 1,433 horses last year and wanted to reduce it to about 1,100,” said Heritage Place general manager Jeff Tebow. “We just don’t have the facility and the infrastructure to sell that many. It worked out well. We broke the sale up into different sessions, based on breeds. We had Quarter Horse the first two and a-half days and Paints and Thoroughbreds on Saturday afternoon.