Deep pockets required to buy Deep Impacts

Deep Impact maintained his domination of the domestic market at the JRHA Foal Sale on Tuesday.

The Shadai Stud champion topped the yearlings on Monday and the trend continued when the weanlings went under the hammer at Northern Horse Park in Hokkaido.

Deep Impact was a two-time Japanese Horse of the Year and is rapidly establishing himself as a worthy heir to his sire Sunday Silence. His foals appeared six times in the Top 10 leader-board with the colt out of G1 winner Sky Diva the most expensive at 250 million yen.

Sky Diva (Sky Mesa) won the 2008 Frizette Stakes and her first foal was purchased by electronic gaming executive Hajime Satomi. “He is very well balanced and I am dreaming of the Japanese Derby,” Satomi said. “He was surrounded by an aura when I saw him the first time at Northern Farm.”

Australian buyer Paul Fudge of Waratah Thoroughbreds weighed in with 145 million yen to buy the Deep Impact filly foal out of G3 winner Love and Bubbles (Loup Sauvage). The filly is a full sister to this year’s Japanese Derby winner Deep Brillante.

“I’ll consider racing her in Europe as well as in Japan as she develops,” Fudge said. “I expect her to be the cornerstone of my operation. She is the best horse in the catalogue for me, regardless of colts or fillies.”

A colt from the first crop of G1 King George VI winner Harbinger was the third-highest price among the foals at 135 million yen. His dam Careless Whisper (Fuji Kiseki) is from the family of Group winners Tosen Jordan, Tosen Homareboshi and Admire Kirameki.

Turnover for the foal session reached 4,843 million yen and the average price was up 11% on 2011 at 30,656,329 yen while the clearance rate also increased to 75%.

“This is an obviously better market than everybody expected,” JRHA vice chairman Teruya Yoshida said. “As a lot of new players joined the market, the buyers had depth, and it created a consistent market.”

Currency converter: 1 million yen = AUD 12,326