Barretts March Sale Wednesday at Del Mar

The Barretts March Select 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale will be held Wednesday at Del Mar, with bidding scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. PT. After a well-attended breeze show Monday, a strong group of trainers and bloodstock agents was out in force shopping at the sales barns on a gloriously perfect Southern California day at the oceanside oval Tuesday.
“There has been quite a good turnout of buyers so far–we had some pretty good traffic early today and I think it will be steady for the rest of the day,” confirmed Adrian Gonzalez of Checkmate Thoroughbreds.
Gonzalez sent out three horses to work during Monday's under-tack preview, including a filly by Smiling Tiger (hip 8) who shared the second-fastest furlong time of :10 flat.
“The track was good and I've heard most of the horses have come back in good shape, so hopefully we'll have a good sale,” Gonzalez said.
A large number of outs even before Monday's preview whittled the 134-strong catalogue nearly in half, but Gonzalez is confident buyers will find what they are looking for at Wednesday's auction.
“This has always been touted as our select sale, so I don't think people are coming here to buy a volume of horses,” he explained. “I think they are coming to buy a special horse. And there are plenty of really nice horses here that should fit most orders.”
Bruno De Berdt's Excel Bloodstock had a strong showing during Monday's preview, with three of its eight offerings turning in :10 flat works and the results on the track meant plenty of action at the barn Tuesday morning.
“We had a very pleasant showing,” De Berdt said. “All of the horses breezed well and they all breezed to form. The track was great, it was very consistent all the way through. We are getting a lot of post-action from the breeze show from very good horse people. The money is here and people want horses, so it is setting up to be a good sale.”
Barretts will be conducting its second select sale at Del Mar after leaving its longtime Pomona home two years ago.
“I believe there was a learning curve at first,” De Berdt said of the transition. “But now that we've had so much success out of last year's sale, people are not discounting the sale like they might have in the past because of the smaller catalogue. People are realizing that there is quality to be had here. You can buy a good horse anywhere and, percentage-wise, I think Barretts puts out a pretty good bunch of horses overall.”
During last year's March sale, Barretts sold 43 horses for a total of $5,356,000. The average was $124,558 and the median was $100,000. The sale was topped by a colt by The Factor, who attracted a final bid of $460,000 from Narvick International.