The Barretts March Sale of Selected Two-Year-Olds in Training was completed Tuesday. It was the first sale done in the renovated facility, which includes artificial grass in the outdoor ring (pictured), darker wood around the sales ring, and state of the art seating with internet access (pictured).

As expected, the sale’s numbers were down from last year, a product of the severely weakened economy. The sale topper was hip 121 (pictured), a bay colt by Tiznow out of the mare Hurricane Judy. He was calm as could be in the ring as the highest bid settled at $650,000. The winning bidder was Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables, who bid by phone through Barretts Vice President of Sales, Kim Lloyd (pictured). Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree Stables, Inc. was the consignor. Stonestreet Stables was also the purchaser of last year’s sale topper, an $800,000 Silver Deputy filly.

Complete Sale Results

-Marcie Heacox

The PR paid off.

On Monday, Curlin was named the Eclipse Award Horse of the Year for the second year in a row.

No doubt he was aided by parades, gifts of specially-labeled wine (pictured), his owner’s never-ending praise, and the excuse that Curlin lost the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Classic because of a “false surface.”

The Curlin wine was sent just in time for Eclipse Award voting season with a DVD and card “signed” by owners Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke. Jackson is owner of the Kendall-Jackson winery, thus the choice of gift.

Here are the final vote tallies for all categories. The Male Sprinter, Male Turf, Owner, and Breeder categories were points of great contention. The Photography winner was also much-debated.

One category that wasn’t debated as much but really stands out to me is the Jockey category. Garrett Gomez, 210 votes, to Rafael Bejarano’s 11 votes!? Bejarano’s sweep of all five riding titles in the Southern California racing schedule is a rare feat. He also had more wins, places, and shows than “Go-Go.” Every meet that Bejarano and Gomez rode against each other, “Raffy” came out on top. Though Gomez had more earnings, I can’t help but feel that the bias towards Breeders’ Cup winners propelled Gomez to such a runaway win, especially from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) voting bloc, which includes Breeders’ Cup Ltd. He won four out of 14 races and the Shoemaker Award for outstanding jockey of the event.

For a different look at the Eclipse Awards, I recommend Ray Paulick’s live blog.

-Marcie Heacox