While Barretts Sales will continue to run under the auspices of the Los Angeles County Fair Association at least through the end of 2018, the CTBA is discussing other options to ensure California has a year-round sales schedule in 2019 and beyond.
A California-bred son of Uncle Mo sold for $600,000 to top the April 4 Barretts spring 2-year-old sale at Del Mar. The sale was a combination of horses traditionally offered at Barretts in March and May, as the company merged the two sales.
Three juveniles posted the fastest furlong work of :10 at the April 2 under tack preview for the Barretts spring 2-year-old sale.
With both the March and May 2-year-old sales producing a string of stakes winners, sales company officials hope the decision to combine the auctions will produce the best of both worlds.
Warren "Spud" Williamson, who with his wife, Alyce, bred and raced such top runners as millionaire Nashoba's Key, multiple graded winner Nashoba's Gold, graded stakes winners Tiz Elemental and Texas Ryano, died March 16. He was 89.
Despite heroic efforts to save her, Vionnet, dam of group 2 winner Roaring Lion, died from complications of laminitis Feb. 1 at Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington.
In 2017 Evin Roman won 166 races in 912 starts for earnings of $5,118,077, easily leading all other apprentice riders in the U.S. by both wins and earnings.
Everything came together in 2017, as Roy H went through a near-perfect campaign.
Family to Clay Murdock extends to the team at Rancho San Miguel, the California farm Murdock has managed for more than 30 years, and to the offspring of the farm’s stallions.
Adrian Gonzalez's Checkmate Thoroughbreds sold three of the four highest-priced horses at the Barretts mixed sale Jan. 17 in Pomona, Calif. All were 2-year-olds and went to three different buyers.
Not only does the Barretts January mixed sale offer opportunities to purchase breeding stock, yearlings, 2-year-olds, and other racing prospects, this year it will feature several ways people can help victims of the San Luis Rey fire.
ONCE RICHARD BARTON sees a good deal, he doesn’t waste any time. He acquired his stallion prospect Champ Pegasus in one day and a farm for the stallion in about a week.
Pulling together as a team, the operators and staff of Trifecta Equine Center pulled together to help save dozens of horses from the fire that devastated the San Luis Rey Downs training center near Bonsall, Calif.
The Stronach Group, in conjunction with Santa Anita Park and The Del Mar Thoroughbred Club, has established a GoFundMe account page to help pay for hospital and rehabilitative costs incurred by those injured in the Dec. 7 devastating Lilac Fire.
In conjunction with Tom Hall's Throwback Thursday feature in BloodHorse Daily, BloodHorse.com each Thursday will present corresponding race stories from the pages of the magazine.
Giant Expectations, whose owners Ryan Exline and Justin Border also co-own Champagne Room, will shoot to give his owners more Breeders' Cup luck when he goes in the Las Vegas Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile Nov. 3
Owner Raymond Mamone likes to race a horse or two with trainer Luis Carvajal Jr., and if the 2-year-old filly he planned to race in late 2015 had been ready, Carvajal might not be at the Breeders' Cup with Florida-bred Imperial Hint.
Despite the many tools available to help with breeding decisions, it's still important to know your horses and look at stallions. That was one of the many tips a panel of experts shared at the OwnerView Conference at the Del Mar Hilton Oct. 31.
In the "Partnerships, Syndicates & Racing Clubs" panel at the 2017 OwnerView Conference, George Bolton, Little Red Feather's Gary Fenton, and Churchill Downs Racing Club's Gary Palmisano discussed their ownership experiences.
Mark Martinez and Jeffry Wilke first met through their respective information technology business interests. Wilke bought into one of Martinez's horses and they now are headed to the Breeders' Cup with Ransom the Moon.
Trainer Phil D'Amato knows how to win at Del Mar, and he's bringing three horses who also are quite familiar with the racetrack. One of those, Midnight Storm, is tied for the all-time leader in stakes wins at Del Mar.
Stormy Hull once hoped he would one day sell a horse for $50,000. At the Oct. 17 Barretts October fall mixed sale in Pomona, Calif., Hull topped the action with a $220,000 yearling filly he hauled to Southern California himself.
Siblings of stakes winners Zakaroff, Continental Divide, and Ismelucky are cataloged for the Barretts' Fall sale of yearlings and horses of all ages being held Oct. 17.
John Antonelli, breeder of champion filly Songbird, will offer Piedras Negras, dam of graded winner La Traviata and granddam of group 1 winners Seventh Heaven (IRE) and Crusade, as part of his California dispersal at the Barretts fall sale.
Three yearlings—all California-breds—sold for six figures each at the Barretts select yearling sale Aug. 29 at Del Mar. A daughter of Bodemeister brought $300,000, an Unusual Heat filly sold for $200,000, and Mucho Macho Man colt brought $120,000.
Shortly after Curlin Road, a $95,000 Barretts May 2-year-old sale graduate, captured the July 26 Cougar II Handicap (G3) at Del Mar, Barretts conducted its paddock sale. Three sold for $100,000 or more, topped by a $180,000 colt by Animal Kingdom.
Two California-breds from Kim McCarthy's McCarthy Bloodstock Agency consignment brought the highest prices at the Barretts May 2-year-old sale, held May 17 at Del Mar.
A combination of California-breds and Kentucky-breds constitute much of what will likely be Barretts' final May 2-year-olds in training sale. The auction is scheduled for May 17 at Del Mar, beginning at 2 p.m. PDT.
A Kentucky-bred son of Malibu Moon topped the Barretts March select 2-year-olds in training sale at $675,000 March 29 at Del Mar.
A filly by Lucky Pulpit and a colt by Justin Phillip recorded the fastest times at the Barretts under-tack preview at Del Mar March 27. The filly worked a furlong in :09 4/5, followed by the colt who worked a quarter-mile in :20 3/5.
After several juvenile sales this year in Florida, buyers on the West Coast will get the chance to shop closer to home when Barretts conducts its select 2-year-old sale March 29 at Del Mar, the second year at that location.
Following its business plan of purchasing mid-priced yearlings with the pedigrees and athleticism to move forward as both pinhooks and as racehorses, Excel Bloodstock targets the Barretts March sale each year.
John Van de Kamp, the former California attorney general who served as president of the Thoroughbred Owners of California, died March 14.
As the small California town of Hemet grew to encompass the area surrounding Ridgeley Farm, owner Pat Thompson did what she always does--she figured out a way to make it work.
Mary "Bay" Schiffer, who with her late husband, Ken, founded Hat Ranch in Wyoming and Hat Ranch West in California, died Feb. 28 in Buffalo, Wyo. She was 102.
Finest City not only proved the best distaff sprinter of 2016, but acquitted herself around two turns on dirt and turf as well.
Cautious Giant, a 6-year-old stakes-placed gelding, brought top price of $57,000 at the Barretts January mixed sale in Pomona, Calif., Jan. 17.
While the sales company now conducts its 2-year-olds in training and yearling auctions at Del Mar, for 2017 it has returned its mixed sales to its previous home of Fairplex in Pomona, near Santa Anita.
The son of Unbridled's Song breezes six furlongs at Santa Anita Park in 1:12 2/5. He'll have one more work before the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1).
Joe Daehling has mastered the art of practicality in a way that makes his Daehling Ranch near Elk Grove, Calif., run at peak cost-efficiency while providing horses with room to run, develop, and grow into athletes.
Gary Fenton of Little Red Feather helps bring owners into racing
Jeff and Kathleen Hebert fell in love with a Kentucky-bred daughter of Ghostzapper at the 2013 Keeneland yearling sale. She had some veterinary issues, which scared enough bidders away that the couple got her for just $15,000.
Dean Reeves cut short a Bahama vacation to buy Spain Burg out of this year's Arqana Arc sale for €1.5 million. He and partner Randy Hill now have a starter in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (gr. I).
Barbara Banke and the other panelists described the exhilaration of their Breeders' Cup victories to those attending the conference.
When deciding to get into horse ownership, go slowly and spread your risk, advised a panel of experts at the opening session of the Thoroughbred Owner Conference Oct. 31 at Santa Anita Park.
Breeders' Cup Sprint (gr. I) hopeful Masochistic might be the big horse in owner Samantha Siegel's racing stable, but By the Moon has deeper roots in her Jay Em Ess operation.
Masochistic worked five furlongs from the gate in 1:00 with jockey Mike Smith aboard in a relaxed manner that had all of his connections pleased with the Oct. 29 move at Santa Anita Park.
A yearling from the first crop of Smiling Tiger, a multiple grade I-winning sprinter and millionaire, topped the Barretts October mixed sale at $190,000.
Barretts moved its October sale back to its former home at Fairplex to take advantage of the horsemen that gather at Santa Anita Park for the Breeders' Cup
Smiling Tiger filly tops Aug. 30 auction
