Barretts to Reformat After Final May Sale

Barretts held its final May Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training Wednesday at Del Mar, which was topped by a $245,000 Animal Kingdom colt, and will now restructure its sale calendar for 2018.

“We are going to have the March sale on the same date and open that up and try to increase the number of horses into that sale,” Barretts General Manager Kim Lloyd said Thursday morning. “We will also have our July Paddock Sale. What we started doing last year with the great cooperation of Del Mar was they let us preview. Since we can preview, we are going to have a lot more unraced horses coming into that sale. Horses who are late developing, or experienced some hiccups along the way, so they weren't ready for March, can go in July if they wish. Those horses will work 3/8 of a mile or farther in that sale.”

Horses in the July Paddock Sale will breeze on the first Monday of the meet and will sell Wednesday after the races.

“That Wednesday is a short race day with eight races,” Lloyd explained. “I have 72 stalls, so it will allow us to have the time to preview all of those horses Monday and sell Wednesday. It will be a mixed sale with racing age horses, but what previewing allows us to do is bring in more unraced horses. It is going to work out well. We are excited to have the opportunity.”

The final May Sale saw 46 juveniles change hands for a total of $2,023,000 compared to last year when 63 2-year-olds brought $2,597,400. The average was up 6.6% to $43,978 from last year's average of $41,229 and median was also up 1.85% at $27,500 compared to $27,500 in 2016.

“The sale went well,” Lloyd remarked. “Talking to the consignors and local buyers, everyone was pleased. The horses were well received. There was a lot of competition for horses. After the sale people were flooding the barns to buy the buy backs.”

The sale was topped by a California-bred son of first-crop sire Animal Kingdom, who was one of 15 juveniles to breeze in a bullet :10 1/5. Trainer Jim Cassidy signed the $245,000 ticket on Hip 57 on behalf of Deron Pearson's D.P. Racing.

“Truthfully I thought he was the best looking horse in the sale,” Cassidy commented. “He worked well and he is a Cal-bred, so he had everything going for him. I vetted him out and he vetted out really clean. Obviously, he was well thought of. There were plenty of people bidding on him.”

Bred by PT Syndicate #1, the bay colt is out of the MSP Dixieland Band mare Bandora, who has already produced two winners from three foals of racing age. Purchased by Wavertree Stables Ciaran Dunne for $45,000 as a Barretts October yearling, Hip 57 was consigned to the sale by Kim McCarthy's McCarthy Bloodstock on behalf of the Ocala-based horseman, who was overseeing his consignment at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Sale in Timonium, M.D.

“He was supposed to go to the [Barretts] March sale, but popped a little splint,” explained Dunne. “We stopped and pinfired him. We thought about bringing him here [to Timonium], but because he's a Cal-bred, we figured that would be the best spot for him. So we sent him back out there.”

He continued, “He has done really well [since last fall]. He was a little bit backward, but he was always a nice horse. Kim McCarthy did a great job with him out there. She's had him for the last week and got him through the breeze show well.”

The highest-priced filly of the day, and second highest-priced lot overall, was Hip 26, a daughter of leading California sire Unusual Heat, who passed away Wednesday at age 27. The Jan. 31 foal, who was also a :10 1/5 worker from the McCarthy bloodstock consignment, summoned $195,000 from George Bolton. Bred in the Golden State by Harris Farms, which stood her sire for part of his career, the chestnut is the first foal out of Patriot C D (Redattore {Brz}).

“We were very pleased with the results,” Lloyd said. “The Cal-breds carried the day with the Animal Kingdom being the top colt and the top filly in the sale was a Cal-bred by Unusual Heat on the day Unusual Heat died. It was a good day all around for the region.”