Fairplex Era Ends for Barretts

by Jessica Martini 

Barretts concluded its 26-year run in Pomona Monday with a perfunctory renewal of its Select 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale. While a colt from the first crop of Grade I winner Twirling Candy topped the sale with a final bid of $400,000 from Conquest Stable, the results sheets also featured a pair of high-priced RNAs. A colt by Hard Spun failed to sell at $500,000 and a filly by Street Sense didn’t sell at $400,000. 

From a catalogue of just 116, there were 48 outs and 22 RNAs, leaving 43 horses to sell for a gross of $5,763,000. The average fell 24.6% to $134,023, while the median dipped 11.1% to $100,000. A year ago, with a seven-figure sale-topper, Barretts sold 60 horses for a total of $10,665,000. The average was $177,750 and the median was $112,500. 
Barretts General Manager Kim Lloyd acknowledged the decreases were largely a function of a catalogue lighter on pedigrees. 

“Because of the sire power, we expected the declines,” Lloyd said. “The pedigrees this year weren’t as strong. Last year, we had a $1,150,000, a $950,000 and a $650,000. And those were Malibu Moons and a Giant’s Causeway. Sire power really makes a difference. But the horses that sold today are athletes and we’re very pleased with the horses that we had and they performed well. Athletes are obviously selling well, but sire power makes them sell for more money.” 

Lloyd added, with this being the first sale in the juvenile sales season, many buyers may be taking a wait-and-see approach in their bidding. 

“I think this early, there are a lot of horses to come,” Lloyd said. “Again [the market] is top heavy, the horses that are not perceived to be top horses are hard to sell this early in the year. While later in the year, it’s a lot easier to sell those.” 

Eddie Woods, who consigned both the sale topper and the $500,000 RNA, put it succinctly. “When they step on it, they step on it,” he said. 

Lloyd concluded, “We’re pleased with the support of the sale and now we move on to Del Mar.” 

Some Candy for Conquest… 

A colt from the first crop of Grade I winner Twirling Candy led early proceedings at Barretts Monday when selling to Ernie Semersky and Dory Newell’s Conquest Stables. 

Out of Dama (Storm Cat), hip 39 was consigned by Eddie Woods. The colt worked a furlong in :10 flat last Friday. 
“He is a very well-conformed, very athletic colt and he had great action over the track,” said Robert McMartin, who bid on behalf of Conquest behind the sales pavilion. 

Of the colt’s young sire, who won the 2010 GI Malibu S., McMartin said, “I think he has a lot of promise, and I know Conquest Stable is very high on him. So we were watching this colt. He was one of our picks before we came to the sale.” 

McMartin admitted the colt’s final price tag was over what he was expecting to pay. “It was a little bit high, but he looks like he’ll be worth it,” he said. 

The sales-topper himself sold for $25,000 at the 2013 Keeneland November sale. Ian Brennan purchased the colt for $50,000 at last year’s OBS August sale. 

“We were thrilled,” said Woods, who was selling on behalf of Brennan. “It’s a lot of money for a nice horse.” 

Woods added the colt’s final price reflected the high demand for what are perceived to be the quality lots. 

“It was probably 30% more than I thought he’d bring,” he admitted. “That seems to be the way. When they step on it, they step on it.” 

Woods also consigned hip 33, a colt by Hard Spun, who RNA’d at $500,000. “It was very close [to getting sold],” Woods said. “We might get it done yet. But we were very close.” 

Tale of the Cat Filly Tops Busy Night for Narvick… 

Emmanuel de Seroux’s Narvick International, bidding on behalf of Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm, was the leading buyer at the sale, purchasing six juveniles Monday. Leading the way was hip 41, a daughter of Tale of the Cat, who sold for $350,000. (ThoroStride video) 

“She is very athletic,” de Seroux said of the filly, who worked a furlong in :9 4/5. “She went fast, she looked sound and she has an excellent temperament. We like her very much.” 

Consigned by Becky Thomas’s Sequel Bloodstock, the dark bay is out of Jill’s Gem (Mineshaft). Thomas purchased the youngster for $75,000 at last year’s Keeneland September sale. 

“We are trying to buy some racehorses,” de Seroux, who purchased Japanese Group 1 winner Testa Matta (Tapit) for $60,000 at the 2008 Barretts March sale, said of Monday’s buying spree. “We liked these horses physically, they looked like runners. They should hopefully do well for us.” 

De Seroux admitted he found plenty of competition in his bidding, but he added, “I think some of them were good value. We bought what we were trying to buy, which is obviously what we perceived as top-class racing prospects. We are looking at good horses because, by the time we have to ship back to Japan and they have to train there, it’s an expensive proposition. We need to have them be good enough to do well there.”