Even before he left the sales pavilion the afternoon of June 17 amid well wishes and congratulatory declarations, consignor Jesse Hoppel carried with him a heightened level of sentiment where the results of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. June Two-Year-Olds in Training and Horses of Racing Age Sale were concerned.
“Growing up in this industry, there have been times where this sale is what turned our family from red to black for the year,” Hoppel said in the midst of trying to absorb his latest milestone. “This sale is really important for all the 2-year-old consignors.”
at the 2026 auction. (OBS/VidHorse photo)
With one day remaining in the final major juvenile auction of the year, the 2026 edition of the OBS June Sale has already cemented itself among the most significant moments of Hoppel’s personal and professional life.
The record-setting mantle that started with the OBS March and April auctions this season was picked up with aplomb by the three-day June sale, thanks to the appeal of a striking gray filly bred in the purple. After selling his first seven-figure juvenile during the OBS March Sale, Hoppel wrote his name into the history books of the sales grounds he grew up on when he sold Hip 428, a gray or roan filly by Triple Crown winner Justify, for $1.4 million to Speedway Stables, becoming the highest priced horse ever sold at an OBS June sale.
The price for the Justify filly surpasses the previous OBS June record of $975,000 set just last year when Feminism, a chestnut filly by Curlin consigned by Caliente Thoroughbreds, sold to Gus King. For Hoppel, it was the latest achievement in a year that has seen his and his family’s horsemanship rewarded in the arena that has been paramount to his success.
“We got really fortunate. I’m just grateful everyone believed in us enough to bid on our horses like that,” Hoppel said. “She exceeded our expectations by far. She’s a really nice filly, she’s got a really nice family. Hopefully she’s really successful on the racetrack and goes on to become a really nice broodmare. All those things are a possibility with that filly.”
Out of the stakes winning Rockport Harbor mare Harbingerofthings, the Justify filly is a half sister to graded stakes winners Tell Your Daddy and Dynadrive, the former of whom is Grade 1 placed. She would have likely commanded her share of attention had she been offered in either March or April but an injury sustained in a paddock accident led to her being pointed to the sale where she now stands alone in its annals.
“She was turned out with a bunch of fillies in a big field just being a horse. We raise our horses natural… just let them be themselves. And she got a big old lump on her shin,” Hoppel recalled. “What happened, I don’t know. But she got kicked or hit it on something…and it set me back. She would have been here in April or March but that set us back a little ways.
“Like so many things, it was definitely a blessing in disguise. Sometimes you feel like you’re being dealt a blow but you’re just setting up for a better outcome. It was good for me and the team and the investors, we had a great day.”
When the filly breezed in :20 4/5 to tie for the fastest quarter during the third day of under-tack shows, Marette Farrell, advisor to K.C. Weiner and Peter Fluor’s Speedway Stables, went back to the barns and immediately pegged the daughter of Justify as one her team needed to pursue. Bidding via phone during a protracted battle that started with an opening bid of $20,000, Farrell ultimately stretched to the limits to secure what she hopes will be a future standout for Speedway’s broodmare band.
“As soon as I saw the breeze, all I wanted to do was go to the barn to see her,” said Farrell, who also credited her team of Tescha Von Bluecher, Zoe Cadman, and Ashley Castrenze. “When I went to the barn, she was everything I could have hoped for. She had size, muscle, presence, a great sense of mind. She’s by a phenomenal stallion Justify who we’re real believers in. Then of course she’s a half to a Grade 1 placed filly and it’s (Grade 1 winner) Mindframe’s extended family. Speedway Stables has a broodmare band now and these are the fillies we want to add to the band, the ones who have brilliance.
“You can’t walk away from a filly as phenomenal as her.”
the 2026 auction. (OBS/VidHorse photo)
The juvenile market has been astounding in its own right with this year’s OBS March auction producing a record sale gross and the April sale establishing a record gross, average, and median, highlighted by the sale of Zedan, a son of Flightline who sold for an all-time OBS mark of $10.5 million. The sale of its first seven-figure horse signified a continuation of such strength during the June exercise.
While session to session comparisons are not applicable due to the 2025 OBS June Sale being held over two days as opposed to this year’s three-day auction, overall figures through the first two sessions reflect a hotly competitive buying base. A total of 353 horses have been sold for gross receipts of $18,898,000through the close of business Wednesday with the average coming in at $53,535 and the median $27,000. The cumulative rate of horses not sold is 26.7 percent.
Wednesday’s session saw 173 head sold for gross receipts of $9,285,000 with an average of $53,671 and a median of $27,000. The session RNA rate was 28.8 percent.
“Before the sale started, they asked me what I thought about June and I said we’ve had a great March and April and I don’t see that changing. Obviously, it didn’t change,” said Tod Wojciechowski, Director of Sales for OBS. “I said it last year, this isn’t your father’s June sale. It has become a sale in its own right and a number of consignors have said that they point horses to this sale.
“Would I have predicted (the seven-figure horse)? I don’t know that I’d have predicted it, but I’m not surprised by it. The quality of horses these guys are bringing to the market…it keeps stepping up, so it’s not surprising to me.”
A total of seven horses have brought $300,000 or more with one day left in the sale compared to eight horses who hit that threshold during the entirety of the 2025 OBS June auction. Contributing to that total Wednesday was Hip 433, a bay colt by Jackie’s Warrior who elicited the session’s second highest price when he sold to Greg Compton, agent for MAG Racing Stables for $300,000.
Consigned by Tom McCrocklin, the colt is out of the winning, multiple graded stakes placed mare Heavenly Hill, who is by OBS graduate City Zip and out of graded stakes winner Pleasant Hill. He breezed in :20 4/5 during the under-tack show.
The OBS June Sale concludes June 18 beginning at 10:30 a.m. with Hips 701 – 1002, supplements 1003 – 1028, and Horses of Racing Age 1051–1056 slated to sell. For full results, visit obssales.com.