By DRF.com
ARCADIA, Calif. (July 14, 2018) — The rapidly changing Thoroughbred auction market in California will include two sales at Santa Anita in 2019 – an auction of 2-year-olds in training in June and a yearling sale in September.
On Friday, the Fasig-Tipton sale company and The Stronach Group, the parent company of Santa Anita, announced an agreement to conduct the sales at Santa Anita. The sales are expected to replace auctions previously conducted by Barretts, which is owned by the Los Angeles County Fair. Barretts is not expected to conduct sales in 2019.
The announcement comes less than two months after the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association distributed an email to its membership assuring state breeders that auctions would continue in the state despite concern over the future of Barretts, which has operated a variety of sales since 1990.
“The CTBA has worked diligently the last few years with Barretts and the Los Angeles County Fair to guarantee a smooth transition with the commercial sales offered in California,” CTBA president Doug Burge said in a statement released by Santa Anita on Friday.
“We are extremely gratified with the support shown by both Santa Anita and Fasig-Tipton as this partnership will provide the needed stability and confidence for California breeders.”
On Thursday, Barretts announced that it would not hold the Paddock Sale of horses of racing age at Del Mar on July 25 because of cost factors but would offer those horses in conjunction with a yearling sale in Pomona on Oct. 16. Barretts is scheduled to host a yearling sale at Del Mar on Aug. 28.
The Los Angeles County Fair has been unwinding its investments in horse racing this decade. The fairgrounds in Pomona was home to the Los Angeles County Fair race meeting each September until 2013. Since 2014, the race meeting has been held at Los Alamitos. The racetrack on county fairgrounds has been dismantled.
Launched in 1990, Barretts was based in Pomona on a full-time basis until the spring of 2015, when it began to offer a majority of its sales at Del Mar. In recent years, sales of 2-year-olds in training, horses of racing age in July, and the select yearling sale in August have been held at Del Mar, while the January mixed sale and fall sale of yearlings and horse of racing age have been held in Pomona.
In the press release issued by Santa Anita, Los Angeles County Fair president Miguel Santana praised the racetrack “for stepping up and taking the lead to support the equine sales industry and keeping a footprint on the West Coast.”
The joint sales between Fasig-Tipton and Santa Anita are tentatively scheduled for June 5 and Sept. 24 or Sept. 25 next year.
“We will work closely with The Stronach Group to serve the California West Coast marketplace,” Fasig-Tipton president Boyd Browning said in Santa Anita’s statement.