A 2-year-old Florida-bred daughter of High Cotton topped the Barretts January mixed sale, selling for $55,000. The sale, held at Del Mar Jan. 20, had an average of $8,239, down 2.9% from the 2015 average of $8,487.
Elena Crim's H & E Ranch consigned the High Cotton filly, and Kristina and Jerome Russell of Lincoln, Neb. purchased her. The filly is out of the stakes-placed Crafty Prospector mare Think Fast, who has also produced Canadian stakes winner Ciaran's Prize.
The Russells were the sale's leading buyers, with six horses purchased for a total $134,000. They also went to $35,000 for a 2-year-old son of War Chant from the consignment of Mary Knight, the leading seller. The top-priced 2-year-old colt of the sale, he is out of the Bernardini mare Primp.
Knight also sold the second-highest-priced horse, a 2-year-old Kentucky-bred daughter of Eskendereya. Ted Aroney's Halo Farms paid $45,000 for the filly, who is out of the stakes-placed Old Trieste mare Sandra's Rose.
The sale grossed $1,170,000 for 142 sold, compared to 2015, when 248 sold for $2,104,800. The median was $5,000, and 31 horses did not sell, for a buyback rate of 17.9%.
"There was a lot of energy at the sale," said Kim Lloyd, general manager of Barretts. "We had multiple bidders on many of these horses."
West 12 Ranch consigned the highest-priced yearling, a son of Twirling Candy —Moccasin Gap, by Giant's Causeway . Christian Dickinson as agent bought the colt for $35,000.
This was the first January sale that Barretts held at Del Mar. Previously, Barretts sold at Fairplex Park in Pomona until that facility closed its racetrack early last year.
