Prices dip at Barretts juvenile sale

DEL MAR, Calif. – The Barretts select sale of 2-year-olds in training at Del Mar on Wednesday showed declines in several key categories but a rise in the price of the leading hip of the sale.

The one-day sale, held in a pavilion adjacent to Del Mar racetrack, saw 43 horses sell for $5,356,000, an average of $124,558, according to sale-company figures. The gross declined 12.8 percent from the 2015 gross of $6,148,000 for 45 horses. The average fell 8.8 percent from the 2015 average of $136,622.

There were 21 horses listed as not sold, or 32.8 percent of the horses through the ring, and 62 withdrawals from the 126 horses in the catalog.

This was the first year that the select sale was held at Del Mar, having been conducted in past years at Barretts’s former home on the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. The company relocated to Del Mar after the 2015 select sale, which was held in late February.

“We were glad to see the sale held its own on average and was fairly close,” said Barretts general manager Kim Lloyd. “We’re very pleased with the sale. Consignors were a little nervous coming out to a new place and a new time slot. We expect strong growth next year.”

The most expensive hip at the sale was a ridgling by The Factor who sold for $460,000 to Emmanuel de Seroux’s Narvick International, acting on behalf of a Japanese client. De Seroux said the unnamed ridgling will be exported to Japan to race.

Consigned by Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree Stable, the ridgling worked a furlong in 9.80 seconds at a training preview at Del Mar on Monday. Last year, the ridgling was purchased for $35,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale by Kate Sheehan as agent.

“He breezed very well,” de Seroux said. “You have a pay a price. He had no flaws. That was the pick of the day as far as colts were concerned.”

The Factor’s oldest foals are 2-year-olds this year. The ridgling is out of Broadway Lullaby, a 9-year-old mare by Songandaprayer who won 2 of 3 starts at Turfway Park and Gulfstream Park in 2011 and 2012.

Last year, the most expensive hip was a colt by Twirling Candy who sold for $400,000.

The leading filly Wednesday, by Smart Strike, was purchased for $450,000 by trainer Bob Baffert as agent. Baffert said he plans to put together a partnership among his clients to race the filly, who worked a furlong in 10 seconds on Monday.

The filly was consigned by Becky Thomas’s Sequel Bloodstock as agent and was purchased by Thomas for $100,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale.

Wednesday’s sale was plagued by withdrawals and several notable buybacks.

In 2015, 48 of the 113 cataloged were withdrawn. This year, Florida-based consignor Steven Venosa withdrew his 13-horse consignment in early March. Venosa was the leading consignor at the 2015 Barretts select sale.

The buyback rate was slightly higher than the 30.7 percent bought back at the 2015 sale.

Consignor John Brocklebank, representing Dickman Legacy Ranch of Utah, sold one horse from a consignment of 12, with six withdrawn and five buybacks. The Brocklebank horses who did not sell included a Union Rags colt for $725,000, an Unbridled’s Song colt for $350,000, and a City Zip colt for $340,000.

Brocklebank said after the sale that Vern Dickman will campaign those horses in Southern California this year.

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