"When he was born he hit the ground, stood up and looked ready to run."
-- Chris Cooper, Coordinator Research Programs/Farm Manager UF/IFAS Equine Sciences Center
Sometimes, not often, the stars line up just right in the thoroughbred business.
During the Ocala Breeders' Sales recent spring auction, one of those alignments happened.
A 2-year-old colt by Ocala Stud stallion High Cotton, whose main purpose was to help further nutritional and physiological research at the University of Florida/IFAS Equine Sciences Center in Lowell, instead sold for $600,000 — one of the highest prices paid for a horse at the yearly sale.
The sale was the highest ever paid for a UF-bred horse and the second-highest priced horse that Ocala Stud has ever sold at auction in its venerable history.
Read more at the Ocala Star-Banner.