Live blogging from Barretts March

The 20th edition of the Barretts March sale of selected two-year-olds in training is about to get underway.

Here are my top ten picks and a few comments from buyers and sellers, as they appeared in today's issue of the Thoroughbred Times TODAY.

The declines we have seen at the two-year-old auctions this year are expected to continue, and some feel the future of Barretts March is in danger. I am hoping for some pleasant surprises tonight, but honestly there is not a lot of optimism in the air.

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Not surprisingly, the sale is off to a slow start. The half brother to I Want Revenge (Hip 15, Thunder Gulch-Meguial (arg), by Roy) RNA'd for a mere $60,000. Consignor Dave Showalter of NexStar said the reserve was $199,000 (although I later learned the horse went through without a reserve)

Word is that the first big price should be Hip 28, a Tiznow filly out of Misty Lee, by Level Sands, consigned by Scanlon Training Center.

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Bob Irvin’s C-Punch Ranch purchased the Tiznow filly for $390,000, highest price of the day so far. The light gray filly is out of a half sister to champion three-year-old filly Xtra Heat – the Level Sands mare Misty Lee.

Scanlon Training Center purchased her for $100,000 at the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale and consigned her at Barretts.

“She’s by a good sire, and she’s a filly with a lot of class,” said David Scanlon. “She came out here and showed herself very well. She moved real good in the video, and she’s a little lighter made filly. They’re saying those are the types of horses that are doing well out here on the synthetic tracks – lighter horses that get over the ground really easy.”

Scanlon got her as a bit of a steal at the September sale, considering how red hot Tiznow was at the time.

"Maybe because she didn’t look like the typical rugged Tiznow, maybe that put a few people off," Scanlon said. "She was a horse that kind of fell through the cracks as a yearling, but we got her in a good spot here. She more than lived up to our expectations."

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Hip 97, a Tapit filly out of Cross Your Heart, by Miswaki, just sold to bloodstock agent Demi O'Byrne for $540,000.

Todd Pletcher will train the filly for new owners Michael Tabor, John Magnier and Derrick Smith.

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Jess Jackson, who was underbidder on the Tapit filly, purchased the sale topper -- a Tiznow colt out of Hurricane Judy, by Storm Cat, for $650,000.

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