JRHA Sale Feature

JRHA SALE FEATURE

JULY 10, 2012

Deep Impact colt paces record-setting day

by Michele MacDonald

The session topper is out of a half-sister to Tosen Jordan (©Japan Racing Association) Propelled skyward by phenomenal young sire Deep Impact and enthusiastic new buyers, the Japan Racing Horse Association Select Sale achieved record turnover of ¥5,452,600,000 (about $67,316,049) for its yearling session Monday. With 202 yearlings selling from a record 242 offered, gross jumped 15.4 percent from the figures reported for the 2011 session, which had been up 49.6 percent from 2010 with 197 sold. Average price increased 12.5 percent to ¥26,993,069 (about $333,248), while the clearance rate remained virtually steady at 83.5 percent. "These are surprising results -- much better than I expected," said Katsumi Yoshida, master of leading consignor Northern Farm, which sold five of the eight yearlings that crossed the magic ¥81 million (about $1 million) barrier -- six more than the 2011 sale yielded. Five of the $1 million yearlings were by 2005 Japanese Triple Crown winner Deep Impact, currently the world's leading sire by progeny earnings, including the session-topping dark bay colt out of Admire Kirameki (End Sweep), a half sister to Grade 1 Tenno Sho (Autumn) winner Tosen Jordan (Jungle Pocket) and a full to Grade 2 winner Tosen Homareboshi, who finished third in this year's Grade 1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby).

Perennially active buyer Takaya Shimakawa, a natural foods entrepreneur,

fended off rival Riichi Kondo to secure the session topper for ¥250 million

($3,086,420).

"The market is vitally supported by Deep Impact. He has already achieved the

status that Sunday Silence held in past years," Yoshida observed. "The

top-priced colt had a good pedigree and good conformation; in total, he was the

best and I expected him to bring the highest price."

The colt made quite an impression on sale observers at the Northern Horse

Park on the island of Hokkaido. Rearing repeatedly in the ring, he elicited both

bids and exclamations from all corners of the pavilion after a stiff opening

salvo of ¥50 million (about $617,284). A duel ensued between Kondo and Shimakawa,

with Seiichi Iketani also taking part up to about ¥150 million.

Shimakawa resolutely trumped each challenge, determined to halter the colt

for his large stable that already includes Tosen Jordan and Tosen Homareboshi.

"I sent my bloodstock manager (Seiichi Tanabe) to Northern Farm two weeks ago

and he said the colt was a very nice individual," Shimakawa said after

prevailing in the bidding war. "I went to the farm on Saturday and saw him -- he

was beautiful and I fell in love with him. I was convinced I must buy him."

However, Shimakawa conceded he had to pay "a bit more than I expected."

The ¥250 million price equaled what had been, prior to last year's explosive

session, a record for a JRHA sale yearling. A filly by Deep Impact out of

Japanese Horse of the Year Air Groove (Tony Bin) brought ¥360 million in 2011 to

establish the current yearling mark.

Shimakawa did not stop with the session's top colt. Standing at the back of

the pavilion near the media center, he also grabbed Hip No. 186, another son of

Deep Impact who is out of Group 2 Premio Regina Elena (Italian One Thousand

Guineas) winner Xua (Fairy King) and is a half-brother to Japanese

classic-placed stakes winner So Magic (Symboli Kris S).

"When I visited Shadai Farm to inspect the yearlings there, this one out of

Xua  was number one," Shimakawa said.

Adding to the appeal of the bay colt is the fact he is from the family of

this year's dual Japanese classic-winning filly Gentildonna (Deep Impact).

Globetrotter Red Desire is a half-sister to the day's co-second-best seller (Andrew Watkins/Dubai Racing Club) Shadai Farm, owned by the eldest of the Yoshida brothers, Teruya, also consigned the co-second highest priced yearling of the day, Hip 88, a son of Deep Impact who is a half-brother to the outstanding race filly Red Desire (Manhattan Cafe). Bloodstock agent Nobutaka Tada and his Globe Equine Management Co. Ltd., no strangers to JRHA peaks and also active at international venues, once again plucked some of the sale's biggest fruit, including Hip 88 and two others that surpassed the ¥81 million mark. Pressed by Shimakawa, Tada had to go to ¥150 million ($1,851,852) to secure the handsome bay half-brother to Red Desire, produced by Great Sunrise (Caerleon), on behalf of his longtime client, Hidetoshi Yamamoto, a pachinko games executive who heads Fields Corp. With his wife Yoko, Yamamoto campaigned filly classic winner Red Desire under the Tokyo Horseracing Co. Ltd. banner and thus was drawn to her half sibling. "We had to get him," Tada said simply. "He's by Deep Impact, he's a great horse and he had a great walk." The price was "just what we expected," Tada added.

Yamamoto would like to invite members of the syndicate club that raced Red

Desire to join him in ownership, but Tada said he is not sure, due to the colt's

high price, if such an arrangement will be feasible. Red Desire earned

international acclaim when she defeated eventual Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner

Gloria de Campeao in the Group 2 Maktoum Challenge Round 3 in Dubai and finished

third in the Grade 1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont Park. She and the

yearling colt are from the family of Grade 1 Arlington Million winner Debussy

(Diesis) and English Group 1 winner and sire Belmez (El Gran Senor).

Just minutes after his success with Red Desire's half-brother, Tada was back

in the high-yen range, spending ¥140 million ($1,728,396) for another son of

Deep Impact, the first foal of U.S. Grade 2 winner Diamond Diva (Dansili), from

the Northern Farm consignment. Katsumi Yoshida had purchased Diamond Diva, an

earner of $774,645, for $400,000 from Three Chimneys Farm at the 2009 Fasig-Tipton

November sale.

"I think this was the best horse consigned by Northern Farm; he was the top

of the top," Tada said. "From his walking to his face, he was perfect."

The Diamond Diva colt will race for a partnership, but Tada said he could not

disclose the owners.

Colts stole many of the sale headlines, as usual at the JRHA sale, but it was

a filly who brought the co-second highest price of the session at ¥150 million

and who Katsumi Yoshida said was rated by his stable staff as the most-prized

individual in his consignment.

The daughter of Neo Universe, sire of Dubai World Cup winner Victoire Pisa,

is a three-quarter sister to Grade 3 winner World Ace (Deep Impact), who

finished second in this year's Grade 1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese Two Thousand

Guineas). She was produced by German classic-placed stakes winner Mandela (Acatenango),

a half-sister to European champion and sire Manduro (Monsun).

The filly was bought by a partnership of Japan Racing Association owners led

by Ken Nishikawa, chairman of the Nakayama Owners Association, under the moniker

Scuderia. Nishikawa said the filly, an elegant dark bay, eventually would become

a key member of the broodmare band at his Western Farm in Hokkaido.

"She was a very good walker and very well balanced," Nishikawa said. "I

thought she was a perfect, faultless yearling and I decided to buy her. The

price was a bit higher than I hoped, but I understood I needed to pay it to get

her because she was so good."

The other big purchases of the session were:

A colt by Deep Impact out of Grade/Group 3 winner Isle de France (Nureyev)

who drew a final bid of ¥96 million ($1,185,186) from relatively new owner

Toshihiko Tabata. The colt's granddam is four-time American Grade 1 winner

Stella Madrid (Alydar), who produced Japanese champion Diamond Biko (Sunday

Silence).

A colt by two-time leading Japanese sire King Kamehameha and out of a full

sister to champion and sire Fuji Kiseki (Sunday Silence), who was sold for ¥92

million ($1,135,803) to Mieko Satomi, wife of Hajime Satomi, who heads the

corporation that owns arcade and video game maker Sega.

Another colt by King Kamehameha out of a half sister to Group 1 Irish Derby

winner Winged Love (In the Wings) and two other stakes winners who was sold to

Globe for ¥86 million ($1,061,729).

Hall of Famer Azeri, now residing in Japan, is the dam of a Zenno Rob Roy colt who sold Monday (Jordan Strickler Photo) While most buyers at the top of the session were experienced players, a bevy of new purchasers jumped into action during the day -- and some were not afraid to bid large sums. In fact, one of those, Kenichi Morita, paid ¥80 million ($987,655) for a chestnut son of Zenno Rob Roy out of 2002 American Horse of the Year Azeri (Jade Hunter) from the Northern Farm consignment. "He just visited the farm for the first time on Friday and is a totally new person (to racing)," said Katsumi Yoshida. Another relatively new buyer, Masahiro Mita, who recently obtained an owner's license from the Japan Racing Association, visited Northern on the morning of the session and then signed a ¥58 million ($716,050) ticket for a chestnut filly by King Kamehameha out of Grade 1 winner Fusaichi Pandora (Sunday Silence). The filly is from the family of champions El Gran Senor and Try My Best. Two Australian-based buyers, who just days earlier won prized owners' licenses from the JRA, found the bidding competitive but each prevailed in the ring. Paul Fudge of Waratah Thoroughbreds, who is being advised by American agent David Ingordo, bought a colt by Heart's Cry for  ¥21 million, while Phil Sly acquired fillies by King Kamehameha (¥21 million) and Stay Gold (¥28 million).

"For foreign buyers, it might have been tough because the yen is so strong,"

said Katsumi Yoshida. "But they did as well as they could under these

conditions."

While the sometimes explosive fireworks at the Japan Racing Horse Association

sale can be very alluring, the siren song of millions of yen changing hands

doesn't always translate into an ecstatic tune for consignors who are not

Japanese.

SF Bloodstock made history during Monday's JRHA yearling session by offering

the first two yearlings bred outside the borders of Japan -- including the first

by European champion Sea the Stars to be offered at auction anywhere on the glob

-- and while both colts were sold, the prices were not extraordinary.

The Sea the Stars colt, a bay half-brother to European champion juvenile and

Group 1 Irish Two Thousand Guineas winner Mastercraftsman (Danehill Dancer)

consigned through Dr. Harry Sweeney's Paca Paca Farm as Hip 89, drew a final bid

of ¥40 million ($493,828) from Makoto Kaneko.

A leading Japanese owner who raced Triple Crown winner Deep Impact, Kaneko

also bought SF Bloodstock's A. P. Warrior colt (Hip 11) out of Grade 1 winner

Nonsuch Bay (Mr. Greeley) for ¥20 million ($246,914).

Kaneko indicated he was delighted with his purchases, while SF Bloodstock's

Tom Ryan reported that his group felt it was "mission accomplished" while also

describing the sale as a "learning experience."

"I went to inspect the horses at Paca Paca Farm and I found that the Sea the

Stars colt was a nice individual, by a champion of champions and a half-brother

to a champion. I decided I wanted to buy him, but I thought it would be

difficult," Kaneko said. "I thought I would have to pay twice the amount I did,

so this is a nice surprise. I am very happy to own a colt by Sea the Stars."

For complete results, go to

http://www.jrha-selectsale.com.