Twirling Candy colt leads way as Barretts juvenile sale posts declines

POMONA, Calif. – A colt by the young stallion Twirling Candy sold for $400,000 at Monday’s Barretts select sale of 2-year-olds in training, topping a sale with across-the-board declines in gross, average, and median compared with 2014.

Monday’s sale had a catalog of 113 horses, but 48 were withdrawn prior to the auction and an additional 21 were listed as not sold. The sale company reported 44 horses sold for a gross of $5,848,000, an average of $132,909, and a median of $97,500. Compared with the 2014 sale, the gross fell by 45 percent, while the average was down 25 percent and the median was down 11 percent. The buyback rate was 32 percent.

The 2014 sale had a catalog of 140 horses, of which 60 were listed as sold for a gross of $10,665,000, an average of $177,750, and a median of $112,500. In 2014, 34 horses were listed as not sold – for a buyback rate of 36 percent – and 46 were withdrawn. The sale-topper in 2014 was a Giant’s Causeway colt who sold for $1.15 million, one of five hips that sold for prices in excess of the 2015 sale-topper.

Monday, there were four notable buybacks – a Hard Spun colt for $500,000, a Street Sense filly for $400,000, an Archarcharch colt for $340,000, and a Super Saver colt for $300,000. Barretts general manager Kim Lloyd said those horses could be sold via private sales.

In addition, Lloyd said Monday’s catalog was not as strong in regards to stallions represented compared with 2014.

“Sire power really made a difference,” he said.

The Barretts select sale is the first in a series of juvenile sales across the country, which Lloyd said allowed buyers to be more selective in regards to prospects on Monday.

“There are a lot of horses to come,” Lloyd said.

The sale-topping Twirling Candy colt was purchased by Ernie Semersky's and Dory Newell’s Conquest Stables, represented by Florida and Canadian bloodstock agent Robert McMartin. The colt will be trained by Mark Casse and will be sent to his base in Ocala, Fla. McMartin described the colt as the leading prospect of the sale for Conquest Stables.

The Twirling Candy colt worked a furlong in 10 seconds at a training preview last Friday. The colt is part of the first crop by Twirling Candy, who is by Candy Ride. The young stallion won 7 of 11 starts and earned $944,900 racing in Southern California from 2009-11.

The colt is out of Dama, an unraced Storm Cat mare, and had been offered at two previous sales. He was purchased for $25,000 as a weanling by Forest Park Stables at the 2013 Keeneland November breeding stock sale, and for $50,000 by Ryston Stables at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. sale of yearlings last August. The colt was consigned on Monday by Eddie Woods, agent.

The most expensive filly of the sale, by Tale of the Cat, was purchased for $350,000 by Emmanuel de Seroux’s Narvick International, acting on behalf of Northern Farm of Japan. The filly was consigned by Becky Thomas’s Sequel Bloodstock, agent. Thomas was listed as the buyer of the filly for $75,000 at the Keeneland September yearling sale last year.

Narvick led all buyers on Monday, acquiring five horses for Northern Farm for $1.25 million. Steven Venosa’s SGV Thoroughbreds was the leading consignor, selling seven horses for $910,000. Woods led the list of sale agents, selling six horses for $1,175,000.

Monday’s sale was the final event at the Barretts sales pavilion, which opened in 1990, on the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds. The company will conduct future sales at Del Mar, beginning with the company’s May sale of 2-year-olds in training. The Barretts sales pavilion is currently used as a sports bar and for simulcast wagering on a year-round basis and will be expanded in those capacities, according to county fair president Jim Henwood.