LAST year’s JRHA Select Sale of yearlings and foals produced records galore. The opening session of yearlings saw new records for turnover, average and clearance rate established on the 20th anniversary of the first such auction. The sale can truly be said to come of age this years.

Three sons of Deep Impact sold for 250 million yen (€1.9 million) or more and all were offered by Northern Farm. Fifteen horses sold for more than 100 million yen (€767,000), eight of them by Deep Impact. A seven-minute bidding war resulted in the session’s top price when a Deep Impact son of the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile winner Listen (Sadler’s Wells) sold for 270 million yen (€2.07 million). He has a full-brother for sale this year.

A Deep Impact half-brother to Australian Group 1 winner and Irish Derby runner-up Seville (Galileo) provided an early indication of the strength of demand when, as Lot 13, he sold for 260 million yen (almost €2 million). This year Northern Farm will offer his own-brother who was born this year.

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

The foal session was exceptionally strong and last year saw the second highest price ever recorded in Japan following 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. Elusive Wave won the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas).

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

With an incredible 40 sons and daughters of Deep Impact (Sunday Silence) due to come under the hammer at Northern Horse Park in Hokkaido, there is little doubt but that this year’s sale will attract even more international attention. The classic successes of Saxon Warrior and Study Of Man in Europe this year again underline the stream of quality winners being got by Deep Impact.

A number of sires who are based outside Japan will also feature with stock for sale. Frankel has had a meteoric rise to the top as a stallion following an exemplary racing career. Northern Farm sell a grey colt foal out of the Dalakhani (Darshaan) mare Snow Pine. Her first foal is this season’s smart three-year-old Tower Of London (Raven’s Pass), a Group 2 winner in Japan. Meanwhile, Taihei Stud Farm will offer the first foal, born on April 12th this year, by the Juddmonte star and out of Tourny (Country Reel), a Group 3 winning juvenile who ran third in the Group 1 Prix Morny.

This year sees the first crop of yearlings by the champion Golden Horn (Cape Cross) hit the sale rings and the first to do so will be a filly out of the dual Irish stakes winner Pearl Of Africa (Jeremy). At the other end of the stallion fee price range, Cheveley Park Stud’s Garswood is off to a winning start with his first runners this year and he has a colt foal for sale out of an Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) mare who is a half-sister to the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks winner Singhalese. The last named is the dam of the Group 1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) winner and champion three-year-old filly Sinhalite (Deep Impact).

A number of prominent US sires are also represented. The leading sire Medaglia D’Oro (El Prado) has a yearling colt out of the stakes winner Goin To The Window (Tapit), while War Front (Danzig) has a yearling and a foal in the catalogue. The yearling is a filly and she is the first offspring from the American stakes winner Circling (Galileo) who was also group-placed in Ireland. The War Front foal is also a first-born, and he is a son of the dual Grade 3 winner Tammy The Torpedo (More Than Ready).

American Pharoah was the Triple Crown winner in the USA in 2015 and he is another sire whose first crop of yearlings are set to cause fireworks.

This could happen in Japan where his sole offering is a son of the Grade 1 Santa Anita Oaks winner Crisp (El Corredor) and he will be one of the 90 yearlings being consigned by Northern Farm. They will also offer 80 foals.

The Northern Farm draft is the biggest and the only other draft of commensurate size is that from Shadai Farm. They will offer 67 yearlings and 43 foals. That means that 290 lots from a catalogue of 482 are due to be sold by two farms.

Uncle Mo (Indian Charlie), the sire of Kentucky Derby winner Nyquist, has a single colt foal in the sale, the first foal of a Giant’s Causeway (Storm Cat) daughter of the Grade 1 winner Awesome Maria (Maria’s Mon). The first offspring of Air Force Blue (War Front) to be sold will be a colt from the stakes-placed Verbouwen (Kitten’s Joy). Champion at two in Europe, Air Force Blue won the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, National Stakes and Phoenix Stakes as a juvenile.

There will be much interest in the first foals to be sold by the Japanese Horse of the Year Maurice (Screen Hero), a leading sprinter and miler who travelled to Hong Kong and won both the Cup and the Mile there. He is just outnumbered by representatives of the first crop of the best three-year-old colt in Japan in 2015, Duramente (King Kamehameha). He won the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) and Satsuki Sho (2000 Guineas), is by a champion and out of the champion mare Admire Groove (Sunday Silence).

Breeders, stallion masters and readers are invited to contact Leo Powell at leopowell@theirishfield.ie with news and updates for the column, and to visit our website www.theirishfield.ie for daily breeding news