Unbridled Slew, brought record price at Barretts May sale.
A Red Bullet colt named Unbridled Slew shattered a Barretts May sale of 2-year-olds in training record Tuesday when he brought the auction's highest price ever of $2.5 million. Sheikh Mohammed's Darley Stable was the buyer, outlasting trainer Patrick Biancone, who was representing Egyptian brewing mogul Ahmed Zayat.Prior to going through the sale ring at Fairplex Park in Southern California, Unbridled Slew had established another May auction record with an eighth of a mile breeze in 9 3/5 seconds. The time equaled the fastest work at that distance for any Barretts juvenile sale and was the fastest ever for a colt offered by the auction firm."He was a special horse from the time he went on the racetrack; then he passed all the tests, and the right people wanted to buy him," said Jerry McMahon, Barretts' president and general manager. "He had a really good physical and had a presence about him. He's a strong colt, and it looked like he still had something left after a great work."Ciaran Dunne of Wavertree Stables consigned Unbridled Slew as agent. Lexington-based Dapple Bloodstock had bought the chestnut colt, as agent, for $190,000 at the 2005 Keeneland September yearling auction."He was a standout physically from day one," said Dapple Bloodstock's Mike Akers. "We paid $190,000 for him, and that was a big price for a Red Bullet that late in the sale (hip no. 3,066). I wanted to pull up, but my partner, Ciaran Dunne, encouraged me to keep going."Ubridled Slew originally was being pointed for the Barretts March select juvenle auction, but Akers and Dunne opted to wait until May to sell the colt because "his shin was stinging him a little bit," Akers said.And they were rewarded for their patience."In the back walking ring at Barretts today, he (Unbridled Slew) looked like he owned the place," Akers reported.A member of his sire's first crop, Unbridled Slew is out of the 8-year-old unraced Avenue of Flags mare Sookloozy and is a half-brother to the winner Lycense to Win (by Lycius). Other members of Unbridled's Slew's family include stakes winners Regal Air, Heather and Rose, and Ashland Rose.Unbridled Slew's $2.5-million price is the second-highest for a 2-year-old in training this year, exceeded only by the $16-million world record amount brought by The Green Monkey, a Foresty -- Magical Masquerade colt, at the Fasig-Tipton Florida select juvenile auction.The highest price ever achieved for a filly at the Barretts May Sale was attained when Hip 343 (Jump on In, a filly by Jump Start out of Lucky'n Loved) was sold for $410,000 by Sequel Bloodstock (Becky Thomas), agent, to agent John Sadler.Barretts reported 200 horses were sold for a record gross of $10,514,500, averaging a record $52,573 with a record-equaling median of $27,000. During the same sale last year, 193 horses sold for $7,663,700 averaging $39,708 with a median of $25,000.Complete results from Barretts
