DeBerdt, Excel Bloodstock Target Barretts Sale

Unique Bella, one of the leading candidates for this year's Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1), put Barretts March consignor Excel Bloodstock in a unique position. At last year's Barretts March select 2-year-old sale, Excel sold Chalon, the only horse to date to have beaten Unique Bella, and Spooky Woods, who finished third to Unique Bella in the March 4 Santa Ysabel Stakes (G3).

Chalon and Spooky Woods epitomize Excel's business plan—the purchase of mid-priced yearlings with the pedigrees and athleticism to move forward as both pinhooks and as racehorses. Spooky Woods was bought for $100,000 at the 2015 Keeneland September yearling sale and sold for $250,000 at Barretts March, while Chalon was acquired for $32,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale and brought $110,000 at Barretts.

"We try to buy a nice horse that hopefully we can make some profit on, and hopefully the end user will make a bigger profit on," said Bruno DeBerdt. "We try to buy horses that we think are going to be precocious enough to do well for us in a 2-year-olds in training sale, but more importantly will go on and be good racehorses. There's a lot of fun in being able to buy a young horse and developing it."

Based in Southern California, DeBerdt runs Excel Bloodstock, a partnership consisting of himself, Angelo Ferro, and Larry Connor. Willy North of Ocala, Fla., breaks and trains the horses for Excel.

Though Excel occasionally sells horses elsewhere, it primarily points toward the Barretts March sale. Excel's consignment at this year's Barretts sale, scheduled for March 29, consists of 12 horses (before withdrawals) by such sires as Blame  , Pioneerof the Nile  , Lemon Drop Kid  , and Animal Kingdom  . The yearling prices Excel paid range from $25,000 to $110,000.

DeBerdt began buying and selling horses while attending college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. With his wife, Rachel, he also runs Equi Air, an equine shipping company, and for many years he worked as a consultant for The Thoroughbred Corp.

In his early pinhooking days, DeBerdt sold the likes of multiple graded stakes winner Olympic Prospect. The son of Northern Jove—Brilliant Future, by Forli, earned $725,320 in the late 1980s and early 1990s. More recently, Excel sold graded winners Sinister Minister and Havana, graduates of the 2005 and 2013 Barretts March sale, respectively.

DeBerdt purchased Havana (Dunkirk—Missy Turtle, by Kyle's Our Man) for $50,000 at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale, and Excel sold him to Demi O'Byrne at Barretts March for $575,000. Havana won the 2013 Foxwoods Champagne Stakes (G1) and finished second to New Year's Day   in that year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1).

"I'm very disciplined on our budget," DeBerdt said about his yearling purchases. "You have to buy value for dollar. It's a lot of work, and you're competing against a lot of very good people. Pinhookers are excellent horse people."

DeBerdt focuses on Barretts, not only because he lives in California, but also because he feels there is a good market on the West Coast.

"There is a big need for racehorses in California," DeBerdt said. "The trainers will shop (Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. sales) very aggressively. They don't always get their orders filled, and they're going to come to California."

Barretts for many years conducted its 2-year-old sales at Fairplex Park in Pomona, and DeBerdt praised the quality of that racetrack surface. Now that Fairplex has closed its racetrack facilities, Barretts holds its 2-year-old sales at Del Mar.

"Del Mar is a great place to sell a 2-year-old," DeBerdt said. "Barretts is going through a transition period with Pomona shutting down. They had to make changes, and it's worked out."