Barretts March 2-year-old sale: Jess Jackson buys Pomeroy colt for $625,000

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Pre-sale optimism proved justified Monday night when the Barretts March select 2-year-old sale performed well above last year’s level, posting double-digit gains in average and median at its first-ever nighttime session.

The one-night sale in Pomona, Calif., attracted bidders from across the U.S. and Japan who bought 55 horses for an aggregate $5,539,000. The 2011 catalog was 22 percent smaller than last year’s version, and gross fell 11 percent from the 2010 total for 69 horses. But average price climbed 11 percent, from $90,652 last season to $100,709 this year, and median rose 17 percent, from $60,000 to $70,000. Buy-backs also declined, falling to 24 percent. In 2010, the buy-back rate was 31 percent.

Stonestreet Stables owner Jess Jackson walked away with the highest-priced juvenile, a $625,000 colt by second-crop sire Pomeroy.

The sale topper is a half-brother to Grade 3 winner Expect an Angel. Consigned by Eddie Woods, agent, as Hip No. 37, the son of Leah’s Angel worked a furlong in 10.2 seconds at the under-tack preview on March 18.

The top price outpaced last year’s sale-topping price of $475,000 for the Unbridled’s Song colt Uphill Tigger.

As at last week’s Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. select juvenile sale, Japanese buyers were active again in California, according to Kim Lloyd, Barretts' vice president of sales. Their purchases through the Narvick International bloodstock agency included Hip No. 30, a $380,000 colt from first-crop sire Corinthian. The gray or roan is out of stakes winner Hollow Miss and is a half-brother to track-record setter and Grade 3 winner He’s Got Grit. Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree agency consigned the colt, who also worked an eighth-mile in 10.2 seconds at the under-tack show.

Narvick was the auction’s leading buyer with four purchases totaling $990,000.