Fall mixed sale marks end of the line for Barretts

Barretts looks to go out with a bang in its final sale for the foreseeable future, as the auction company conducts its fall sale of yearlings and horses of all ages on Tuesday in Pomona, Calif.

Fasig-Tipton and Santa Anita announced over the summer that they have formed a partnership and will conduct a juvenile sale in June 2019 in California, as well as a yearling auction in late September. The auctions will replace the events previously run by Barretts. Barretts, owned by the Los Angeles County Fair, is not expected to conduct sales in 2019.

There are 286 horses cataloged for Tuesday’s sale. Of those, 231 are yearlings, and will be offered at the start of the session, which begins at 11 a.m. Pacfic. The remainder of the catalog is primarily made up of broodmares, but also includes racing or broodmare prospects, geldings and colts, and a handful of weanlings.

The yearling portion of the sale is highlighted by progeny from the final crops of two of California’s most successful sires.

Perennial leading sire Unusual Heat was euthanized in May 2017 at Harris Farms due to complications of arthritis-induced laminitis. He had been pensioned the prior fall. Unusual Heat’s representatives in the Barretts catalog are led by a filly who is a full sister to his Grade 1-placed stakes winner Bel Air Sizzle, as well as stakes winner America’s Friend and Grade 2-placed Starspangledheat. Unusual Heat is also represented by a filly whose dam is a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Hardest Core.

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Lucky Pulpit, the sire of two-time Horse of the Year California Chrome, died of a cardiac event on opening day of the 2017 breeding season at Harris. The stallion’s yearlings cataloged include a filly who is a half-sister to Grade 3-placed stakes winner Raised a Secret, and a filly out of a half-sister to Grade 1 winner The Usual Q.T.

The mixed portion of the catalog is highlighted by a pair of stakes-producing broodmares. Starlet Sky, offered in foal to Roi Charmant, is the dam of stakes winner Qiaona. Drama Cat, the dam of stakes placed Whatsallthedrama, is in foal to first-year California stallion Stanford.

Stakes winner Ring True will be offered at Barretts in foal to Kentucky sire Goldencents, North America’s leading freshman sire. The catalog includes two other stakes-placed broodmares in Fifth Avenue and Ochoa.