Two-time graded stakes placed Cautious Giant (Giant's Causeway) (
Hip 203) earned top billing at the Barretts January Mixed Sale Tuesday when selling to his trainer Kristin Mulhall for $57,000. Campaigned by Betty and Robert Irvin and trainer Carla Gaines for the first half of his career, the now 6-year-old gelding was claimed by Mulhall for Tachycardia Stables and Twilight Racing in September of 2015.The $220,000 KEENOV buy won his first two starts for those connections and was third in both the GII Palos Verdes S. and GII Kona Gold S. in 2016. Consigned to this sale by Harris Farms, the bay's record currently stands at 23-4-0-6 with earnings of $285,590.
The second highest-priced horse of the day was Hip 195, a 2-year-old filly Storm Wolf half-sister to GSW and MGISP Dothraki Queen (Pure Prize), who brought $45,000 from Super Horse Inc. Bloodstock agent David Meah went to $40,000 on behalf of Ruis Racing for a uniquely-colored yearling colt by Lucky Pulpit (Hip 89). Both Hip 195 and 89 were consigned by Havens Bloodstock Agency.
The one-session sale returned to its previous home at Fairplex in Pomona this year after being held at Del Mar last term and saw numbers dip just slightly from 2016. A total of 125 horses grossed $995,800 Tuesday compared to last year when 143 head sold for $1.188-million.
The average was down a bit from $8,308 last term to $7,966 and median also decreased from $5,000 to $3,700 in 2017. With 36 horses led out unsold compared to 30 last year, the RNA rate was up from 17.34% in 2016 to 22.36% this term.
“We were pleased that we moved a lot of horses for a lot of local people to keep them in the game and keep them moving forward into the next year,” said Barretts General Manager Kim Lloyd. “We are looking forward to March.”
Barretts returns to Del Mar Mar. 29 for the March Select 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale.
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