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Lime Country-offered colt makes record-breaking $610,000 at Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale.

A colt by Newgate Farm-based Deep Field (Northern Meteor) smashed the previous record at the Inglis Ready 2 Race Sale on Tuesday after Macau Jockey Club and Louis Ho fought off fierce competition for the colt, eventually landing a $610,000 blow to secure the Lime Country Thoroughbreds-consigned youngster.

Catalogued as Lot 162, the colt clocked 10.30 seconds for his breeze and he is the second foal out of two-time winning Exceed And Excel (Danehill) mare Wind Shift. 

The colt's third dam is dual Group 3 winner Blue Storm (Bluebird), who in turn produced fellow Group 3 scorer Steflara (Zabeel). 

Steflara is herself the dam of stakes-placed pair Pleiades (Redoute's Choice) and Glissade (Redoute's Choice), with the latter being the dam of last season's Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner Flit (Medaglia d'Oro), who added fourth win to her CV on Saturday when she took out the Silver Eagle (1300m) at Randwick. 

It was no surprise to see the colt purchased by Hong Kong interests with the stallion's progeny having proved themselves a good fit for the jurisdiction with Deep Field being represented by 12 starters for six winners there, including unbeaten gelding Winning Dreamer.

Macau Jockey Club and Louis Ho bought the colt in conjunction with David Hayes, who returned to Hong Kong this season and he said the colt would now head to Lindsay Park, before any concrete plans are made about his immediate future. 

"We're ecstatic to secure the colt," said Hayes. "Louis Ho from the Macau Jockey Club was instrumental in purchasing the horse. The horse will now go to Lindsay Park in Euroa to let down and a further decision will be made on his future in coming weeks after a short spell.

"We just loved him. He's a particularly sharp looking horse with great balance who breezed up well.

"He's another good product by the sire and we're thrilled to be taking him home.''

Purchased by Regal Farm Partnership, Upper Bloodstock and Teng Long for $230,000 at the Inglis Classic Yearling Sale, the colt was offered by Lime Country Thoroughbreds on behalf of New Zealand-based Regal Farm.

Greg Griffin of Lime Country Thoroughbreds said that due to the restrictions surrounding coronavirus they sold drafts for New Zealand-based vendors Regal Farm and Trelawney, who they also enjoyed a good result with when their colt by Savabeel (Zabeel) was snapped up by Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young for $310,000 later on in the afternoon.  

"Shane (Crawford) and Kara (Waters) from Regal Farm, along with Brett and Cherry from Trelawney, sent the draft across to us in outstanding order," Lime Country's Greg Griffin said. "They do a great job and it's just really good to get good results for good people who have been supporters of us for a long time, so I'm stoked for them. 

"It's been quite surreal really, due to the Covid restrictions and travel restrictions, it's been odd having horses that you know are going to sell well but aren't parading anywhere near as much as they would ordinarily. You've got to be guided by opinions of friends in the industry, by the sales company, by registrations and that sort of thing. Inglis has done a good job to get buyers online and involved.

"I also think work that vendors and the sales company has done to get more promotional material out there, even something as simple as the height and weight was a good innovation for the sale.''

Meanwhile, Shane Crawford of Regal Farm was ecstatic after the sale and explained the colt had been bought specifically with this sale in mind. 

"I think it was just a case of Kiwis looking after each other and big ups to them for taking them on," said Crawford.

"He was always bought specifically to go through Sydney, that was always the idea and we just thought he'd be a really good fit for that sale.

"He's been A-grade. He's had a fantastic brain on him from the get go and what I really like about the horse is that he just kept improving all the way through and he's just a real athlete."

Crawford said he thought the colt would prove popular, particularly from Hong Kong interests, but said the price-tag excelled anything they could have hoped for.

"We had a feeling he was going to sell being by Deep Field who is going really well and is very popular in Hong Kong and he breezed really well, but to reach the level he did, that was beyond our wildest dreams," said Crawford. 

"It's been a tough sale but I think if you've got the right article, you can do okay. We put a lot of hard work into looking at these yearlings to start with and to get the results at the end is a great feeling.

"It's really exceeded our expectations. It was a really long process, all of the horses were bought in Australia originally and then we had to get them back to New Zealand, broken in and prepared and keep them all in one piece so it was a lot of hard work."

Lime Country Thoroughbreds finished the day as the sale's leading vendor by average, selling five horses for a total of $1,180,000 and finished with an average of $236,000.