JRHA SALE FEATURE
JULY 10, 2012
Deep Impact colt paces record-setting day
by Michele MacDonald
With 202 yearlings selling from a record 242 offered, gross jumped 15.4
“These are surprising results — much better than I expected,” said Katsumi
Five of the $1 million yearlings were by 2005 Japanese Triple Crown winner
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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).
Pressed by Shimakawa, Tada had to go to ¥150 million ($1,851,852) to secure
“We had to get him,” Tada said simply. “He’s by Deep Impact, he’s a great
The price was “just what we expected,” Tada added.
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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).
“He just visited the farm for the first time on Friday and is a totally new
Another relatively new buyer, Masahiro Mita, who recently obtained an owner’s
Two Australian-based buyers, who just days earlier won prized owners’
Paul Fudge of Waratah Thoroughbreds, who is being advised by American agent
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“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.