DEL MAR, Calif. – The Barretts select yearling sale at Del Mar on Tuesday showed a sizable increase in gross, average price, and median compared to the corresponding event in 2017, but a significant decline in the number of horses listed as sold. The most expensive hip was an Unusual Heat colt purchased for $250,000 by Samantha Siegel from the consignment of Harris Farms. According to sale company figures, 42 horses sold for $2,632,000 on Tuesday, an increase of 20.9 percent over the gross of $2,177,000 from the sale of 53 horses last year. The average price rose 52 percent, from $41,075 in 2017 to $62,667 on Tuesday. The median price rose from $32,000 last year to $50,000. The number of horses listed as not sold rose from 27 of the 80 that went through the ring last year, or 33.7 percent, to 38 of the 80 offered this year, or 47.5 percent. There were six horses withdrawn from Tuesday’s sale and seven withdrawn last year. This was the final sale Barretts will conduct at Del Mar. The company is operated by the Los Angeles County Fair, which is winding down its horse racing holdings. The county fair race meeting was last held on the fairgrounds in 2013 and has been held at Los Alamitos since 2014. “It was a great way to end our tenure at Del Mar,” Barretts general manager Kim Lloyd said. This was the fourth year Barretts held a select yearling sale at Del Mar. The 2015 event had an average of $37,023, which rose each year. “We felt like we hit our stride last year,” Lloyd said. “This year, we saw a different group of horses in our inspection. We thought it would go well.” In 2019, Fasig-Tipton plans to conduct a yearling sale at Santa Anita in late September. Tuesday, six horses sold for $100,000 or more. There were three six-figure transactions last year. The Unusual Heat colt is part of the stallion’s final crop. Unusual Heat, who led California stallions in progeny earnings six times, was euthanized in 2017 because of a laminitis-related illness. Trainer Brian Koriner signed the ticket on behalf of Siegel, who led all buyers, acquiring three horses for $510,000. “He’s a big Unusual Heat,” Koriner said. “A lot of them are awkward. For an Unusual Heat, he is very attractive.” The colt is out of Cinema Paradisa, an 18-year-old mare by Capote, and is a half-brother to the California-bred stakes-placed runners Moving Desert, who earned $182,020, and Sambamzajammin, who earned $132,905. “We knew he was popular with the trainers and everyone who looked at him,” said David McGlothlin of Harris Farms. “It was a perfect storm. He is a good individual. His scopes were good and his radiographs were good.” Unusual Heat stood at Harris Farms beginning in 2011. “That’s the sad part of it,” McGlothlin said. “In the last eight years, it was fun to go out in the field and see who next year’s stars would be.” Siegel also purchased a colt by Goldencents and a filly by Fed Biz, both for $130,000. Koriner will train those three prospects, along with a Shackleford filly acquired by Blinkers On Racing Stable for $140,000. “I think I paid a premium for the Unusual Heat,” Koriner said. “The Goldencents was a good value. I think good Cal-breds are in demand. There are a lot of good horsemen out here looking for the same thing. “I train for people as excited as I am right now.” Tom Bachman’s Fairview LLC of Petaluma, Calif., led all consignors, selling six horses for $660,000, including a Square Eddie colt purchased for $230,000 by trainer Simon Callaghan, agent, and the Goldencents colt and Fed Biz filly Siegel acquired for $130,000 each. Callaghan said two of his clients will form a partnership on the Square Eddie colt, a half-brother to the multiple stakes winner Take the One O One, who is scheduled to run in Sunday’s Grade 2 Del Mar Derby. Bachman bred the six prospects that comprised his entire consignment. “I brought a good group here,” he said. “They all came around. You try to breed to get a product the public wants. You get lucky and try not to screw things up.” The Square Eddie colt is out of the stakes winner North Freeway. Last year, a filly by Bodemeister out of North Freeway was the most expensive hip of the Barretts Select yearling sale at Del Mar, going for $300,000 to Siegel from Bachman’s consignment. The filly has yet to race. Bachman said North Freeway has a weanling colt by Into Mischief that will be offered at the Fasig-Tipton November sale in Kentucky. The mare has been bred back to Bodemeister.