Strong Results at Barretts

STRONG RESULTS AT BARRETTS
by Jessica Martini 
    Highlighted by the auction’s first seven-figure price since 2007, the Barretts March Sale of Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training produced strong results, with increases across the board, Monday in Pomona, California. From 141 head catalogued, 94 juveniles went through the ring, with 60 selling for a gross of $10,630,000. A year ago, 61 head sold for $8,751,000. The average of $177,167 was up 23.5%, while the median rose 12.5% to $112,500. The buy-back rate was 36.17%. It was 33.7% a year ago. 
    “We’re very, very pleased with the results,” said Barretts General Manager Kim Lloyd. “You like to see the buy-backs down, but that’s just typical of this sale. It’s the first sale of the year and it was very strong.” 
A son of Giant’s Causeway topped the one-session auction when selling for $1.15 million to Coolmore’s Demi O’Byrne. It was the first time since Noble Lad (Officer) brought $1.4-million in 2007 that the million-dollar plateau had been breached at the March sale. The sale came close to producing a second seven-figure juvenile when Todd Pletcher, sitting alongside the Coolmore contingent made a final bid of $950,000 for the very last horse through the ring, a filly by Malibu Moon. It was one of three juveniles by Malibu Moon purchased by the Irish group, which paid a sale-topping $675,000 for subsequent graded stakes winner Corfu (Malibu Moon) at last year’s March sale. 
    Lloyd added that he was gratified to see the strength of the buying bench. “We expect the good horses to take care of themselves in the bidding,” Lloyd said. “It’s important to us to sell those $200,000s and to keep everyone in action and moving forward in the process and that was really good today.” 

Giant’s Causeway Colt Lights Up Barretts 
    The Coolmore contingent topped off a busy session of buying at Barretts Monday with the $1.15-million purchase of a flashy colt by Giant’s Causeway. Demi O’Byrne, surrounded by Michael Tabor, M.V. Magnier and Paul Shanahan, signed the ticket on the colt after seeing off a determined Bob Baffert, who did his bidding out back. Out of stakes winner Dixie Dreamer (Mutakddim), the chestnut was consigned by Steve Venosa’s SGV Thoroughbreds on behalf of J.J. Crupi’s Crupi’s New Castle Farm. He turned in a co-bullet :9 4/5 work last Thursday at the sale’s under tack preview. 
“He breezed awfully well,” O’Byrne said. “He’s a lovely looking horse with a beautiful head.” 
O’Byrne signed for a pair of future graded stakes winners at last year’s Barretts sale in Havana (Dunkirk) and Corfu (Malibu Moon). “We got some nice horses here last year,” he admitted. “I like this sale, I’ve always done well here.” 

Career Score for Team SGV 
    Steve Venosa, whose SGV Thoroughbreds consigned Monday’s sale-topping Giant’s Causeway colt, acknowledged the result was extra gratifying. 
    “I’m very happy,” Venosa said while accepting congratulations out back. “I sold that horse for J.J. Crupi and he’s the main reason I am in this business. He gave me my start and it’s gratifying to sell a horse like that for him. He was the one who started me in this business.” 
Asked if this was his first million-dollar sale, Venosa said, “It’s not my first million-dollar sale, it’s the team’s. It’s our first million-dollar sale. Without our team, we wouldn’t have been able to do that. It was a joint effort, from J.J’s farm, where they broke and trained him, to coming here and putting the final touches on him.” 
Crupi purchased the youngster for $150,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. Venosa said he always looked like a special horse. 
    “I went and watched him train at the farm and he was a super horse,” Venosa said. “He came in here, came off the plane and never took a bad step. He was very forward. He previewed extremely well. When he left the pole, he unleashed the fury. Back at the barn, he is just a very smart horse, very athletic, never missed a beat and he showed extremely well.” 
    Of the final price, Venosa added, “I always say a 2-year-old sale is a performance sale. And the way he performed on the track, we were confident he was one of the top horses. Any time you lead a horse over here, you’re never sure what they are worth, but the market said what he was worth today.” 

Moon Landing 
    Malibu Moon was the flavor of the day for Coolmore, which purchased three juveniles by the Spendthrift stallion, highlighted by the late-session purchase of hip 140, a filly out of In the Ghetto (Hennessy) for $950,000. Trainer Todd Pletcher, flanked by Demi O’Byrne, M.V. Magnier, Paul Shanahan and Michael Tabor, signed for the youngster, who was consigned by Harley/DeRenzo Thoroughbreds. Earlier in the session, O’Byrne signed the ticket at $450,000 for hip 24, a daughter of Malibu Moon out of the graded stakes winner Necessary Evil (Harlan’s Holiday). Pletcher signed the ticket at $550,000 for hip 48, a colt out of Rosy Humor (Distorted Humor). That juvenile was one of three to work in :9 4/5 during last week’s preview show. 
    “He’s a fast colt and hopefully he’ll be precocious,” Pletcher said of the bay colt, who was consigned by Raul Reyes’s Kings Equine as agent. “The work was very good,” Pletcher continued. “I thought he had excellent action. He was fast and looks like a well-built colt. He checked all the boxes.” 
Asked about the colt’s new ownership, Pletcher said, “I’m not 100% sure how the partnership will break down yet.” 
From the family of Johannesburg and Tale of the Cat, the colt was purchased by Dona Licha Stables for $120,000 out of the Keeneland September sale. 
    Hip 24 was purchased by the late David Greathouse of Glencrest Farm, which campaigned Necessary Evil, for $190,000 at the 2012 Keeneland November sale. She RNA’d for $225,000 at last year’s Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. Necessary Evil herself RNA’d for $270,000 at the Barretts March sale in 2009 before winning the GIII Hollywood Juvenile Championship S.

Hartley/DeRenzo Kicks off 2014 in Style 
    Hartley/DeRenzo has been missing from the Barretts March sales catalogue for the better part of two decades, but the operation returned in style Monday, selling a filly by Malibu Moon for $950,000 to Coolmore. 
“She is an amazing filly,” gushed Dean DeRenzo. “I thought she would be rewarded for her efforts and what she looked like. So I guess we were expecting that kind of price, but you never know what is going to happen at the sales. But wow, what a filly they got. I am glad we came and I hope they win that Grade I right out with her and make us all ecstatic.” 
DeRenzo and partner Randy Hartley picked the filly out of last year’s Keeneland September sale for $160,000. 
“She had all that same demeanor and she looked the part,” DeRenzo recalled Monday. “We try to jump right on those as much as we can. And her pedigree is deep.” 
    Since last fall, the filly has only gotten bigger. “She has grown and grown and looks like she has another several inches to grow,” DeRenzo said. “She is an Apr. 17 foal, so she has a lot of growing to do.” 
Hartley/DeRenzo sold three horses Monday for $1,550,000 and an average of $516,667. 
“This was a good way to start the sales season and I’m glad we brought the right horses out here,” he added. “I think we will be back next year.”

Hui Back at Barretts 
    Kin Hui’s Diamond 100 Racing partnership enjoyed success buying at Barretts last year, bringing home subsequent “TDN Rising Star” and graded stakes performer Diamond Bachelor from Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree consignment. The California-based owner was back in action Monday, striking for a quick one-two purchase from the same operation. One hip after spending $225,000 for a son of Lookin at Lucky (hip 76), Hui went to $625,000 to secure a daughter of Galileo (Ire) out of GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Adoration (Honor Grades) (hip 77). Asked what he liked about the chestnut filly, who worked a furlong in :10 2/5 last Thursday, Hui smiled and said, “Pedigree. We are buying the pedigree.” Of the price tag, he added, “The price is the right price. [Galileo’s] average yearling price was $600,000 and right now she’s a 2-year-old, so I think that was a good price.” 
    Hui, who is CEO of the Singpoli Group, did his bidding alongside trainer Patrick Biancone. 
“She has a great pedigree and she is a pretty mover,” Biancone said of the juvenile. “She worked pretty good on the dirt, but she is supposed to be a turf horse. Before we came to the sales, we were in Ocala and saw many, many horses work and when we saw her work on turf, she was amazing.” 
    On behalf of clients, Biancone signed for the chestnut filly at $250,000 as a Keeneland September yearling. 
Of Diamond 100 Racing’s newest acquisitions, Biancone said, “They were two horses we liked. The colt is a very sound horse, he moves fast and should be a good 2-year-old. We tried to balance; one for later [the Galileo] and one for early.” 
Dunne acknowledged the Galileo filly had sold herself in Florida this winter. 
    “She was a bit of a collector’s item,” Dunne said. “She was a filly that Mr. Hui had come to see in Ocala and he watched her train on the grass, which is where she probably wants to be at the end of the day, so they were playing with a little inside information, having done their homework in Ocala.” 
    Of the overall market, Dunne said, “It’s a good sale. I think everyone got a little hyped up coming in here and I think it’s been a good solid sale, without being spectacular. We’ve started off pretty good, we moved quite a few horses along and made a little bit of money in a couple of spots. If the rest of them go as well, we’ll be all right.”