Barretts: $60,000 mare tops January sale

Sci Fi Kin, the dam of Grade 2 winner Pretty Unusual and carrying a full sibling to that runner, brought $60,000 Monday at the Barretts January mixed sale, the highest price on a day that saw gains in average and median.

Ron Stolich bought Sci Fi Kin, a 13-year-old Siphon daughter of the graded-winning Time to Explode mare Akinemod. She was pregnant to Unusual Heat, sire of both Pretty Unusual and Akinemod’s other stakes performer, stakes-placed Jax El. Harris Farms, agent, was the consignor.

The one-day auction in Pomona, Calif., sold 162 horses for $982,500, down 28 percent from last year’s session, when 256 horses sold. But average and median continued a recent trend of rises in the Thoroughbred market. Average price increased 14 percent, from $5,310 last year to $6,065, and median advanced 20 percent, from $2,500 last year to $3,000. However, the buyback rate was 33 percent, up from 26 percent. There were 51 outs this year, as compared to 61 in 2011.