THE opening session of the JRHA Select sale, a yearling session, saw new records for turnover, average price and the clearance rate established on the 20th anniversary of the first such auction.

Three sons of Deep Impact sold for 250 million yen (€1.9 million) and all were offered by Northern Farm. “This is obviously a better market than I expected,” Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm, the leading consignor, said at the conclusion of the session. “Fifteen horses sold for more than 100 million yen (€767,000) today. Eight of them are yearlings by Deep Impact and seven of them are by other stallions. We have a variety of top stallions and I think it helps to boost the market, and we have seen a lot of new players in the market. It is also a factor behind the strong market.”

A seven-minute bidding war led to the day’s top price when the Deep Impact son of the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile winner Listen (by Sadler’s Wells) sold for 270 million yen (€2.07 million). The own-brother to Group 2 Rose Stakes winner Touching Speech sold to Satomi Hajime. “There were two yearlings which I was interested in today, but one of them scratched unfortunately. Hence, though the price went up a bit more than I thought, I kept trying,” Hajime said afterwards. The colt will be trained by Yasutoshi Ikee.

A Deep Impact half-brother to Australian Group 1 winner and Irish Derby runner-up Seville provided the early fireworks when, as Lot 13, he sold to Masaaki Matsushima of Kiefffers Co Ltd for 260 million yen (almost €2 million). Selling for 250 million yen and completing a clean sweep of the top lots for Northern Farm was the Deep Impact colt out of Irish 1000 Guineas and Grade 1 winner Samitar. He is the second foal of the Rock Of Gibraltar mare and was bought by Danox Co Ltd.

A total of 216 yearlings sold for 8,634,500,000 yen (more than €66 million) and this represents a 6% increase from 2016 and establishes the new record. The average price, 39,974,537 yen (over €300,000) was up 18% and is also new record at the yearling session. The clearance rate, 89%, was another figure to eclipse the previous best.

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DAY two saw foals selling and the second highest price ever recorded was established by the sale of a colt by Deep Impact out of Elusive Wave, consigned by Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm. He was bought by Riichi Kondo for 580,000,000 yen (€4.45 million). The record stands at 600 million yen and was established in 2006. The dam won the French 1000 Guineas in 2009.

“Both myself and my trainer (Yasuo Tomomichi) were determined to buy this colt,” Kondo said. “I visited Northern Farm four or five times to inspect foals and I found this colt had everything. He is very well-balanced, has a nice head, and I feel an aura about him. JRHA is an international market and the buyers from foreign countries are active. I didn’t want to let such a treasure to leave Japan.

“I was prepared to pay this kind of money to buy him after seeing the market, which is very strong.”

The 190 foals on the day sold for 8,692,500,000 yen (again more than €66 million) and this was a massive 28% increase from the previous year. The average price of 45,750,000 yen (€350,000) is up 16% from 2016, while the clearance rate improved from 75% to 86% in 2017. All these figures are new records.

“The market is very strong and I am very happy with the result,” Teruya Yoshida, the acting chairman of JRHA, commented after the sale.

“Japanese breeders have spent a lot of money to buy mares with wonderful race records and beautiful pedigrees during the last decade, and I think the quality of Japanese-bred horses has improved significantly. I think this year’s catalogue is one of the best in the world. I am also impressed to see new buyers active at every price range, from the top to the bottom. I understand we must keep working hard to improve the quality of horses we breed, but I would like to enjoy the moment today after having such a good sale.”