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.