Barretts Opens Selling Season Jan. 26

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Barretts opens its 2009 selling season with its January mixed sale on the grounds of Fairplex Park in Southern California. The auction, which has more than 300 horses in its catalog, begins at 11 a.m. (PST) Jan. 26.

The sale will be the first conducted by Barretts since its president and general manager, Jerry McMahon, left the company earlier this year, saying he was seeking new opportunities.

“You don’t just replace a guy like Jerry McMahon, who was a great thinker and a tremendous person,” said Kim Lloyd, Barretts’ vice president of sales and the equine manager for Fairplex. “What you do is pick up and go on, and that’s what we’re doing – with his blessing, by the way. Barretts is not folding up. We’re here for the long haul, and it’s important that everybody knows that. People were saying, ‘Oh, are you shutting down?’ But just because Jerry left doesn’t mean we’re finished. We’re going forward.”

Broodmares cataloged for the January mixed sale are in foal to such sires as Benchmark  , Bertrando, In Excess, and Unusual Heat. Sires represented by yearlings in the catalog include Bertrando, In Excess, Macho Uno  , Tapit  , and Thunder Gulch  .

Last year, the January sale suffered downturns of 46.6% in gross revenue, 34.1% in average price, and 28.9% in median price. The buy-back rate was 27.6%.

Barretts will face financial challenges again this year because many mixed auctions in late 2008 and early 2009 have suffered significant setbacks.

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