Reigning champion sire in Hong Kong, Deep Field shone at the Inglis Ready2Race Sale on Tuesday with a colt offered by Nolen Racing selling for $550,000 to Anton Koolman Bloodstock after producing the fastest breeze up gallop of the sale.
First offered as a weanling at the 2021 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale where he made $90,000 for Glastonbury Farm when bought by Hopetoun Lodge Pty Ltd, the colt from Alderney was then re-offered at Inglis Premier where he caught the eye of Tal Nolen, who secured him for $120,000.
“I didn’t expect that sort of money, that’s for sure. When he started off, I was a little nervous but once they kicked into it, it felt good,” Tal Nolen told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“Education is the main thing with these horses and I’m lucky I’ve got good staff. He’s always been professional, always shown he was going to be a nice horse.
“We bought him at Prem thanks to (Inglis’) Will Stott, he put me onto him, so we’ve really got to give Will the credit for this one.
“We had $200,000 reserve on the horse and hoped for $300,000. I never saw $550,000 coming.”
The star colt is a half-brother to smart mare Riduna, who gained Black Type since the catalogue went to print with a second placing in the Group III Tibbie Stakes at Newcastle and has a quality Black Type family featuring stakes-winners Ballet Suite and Casquets.
Pedigree aside, the colt showed in his pre-sale breeze up gallop that he can certainly run with a flying 200m sectional of 10.10 seconds recorded at Seymour the fastest breeze up of the sale.
“He is a horse we’ve been attracted to for quite a period of time. I inspected him twice here on the grounds and I chose not to go back a third time because I think I would have been even more excited,” said Olly Koolman, who purchased under the banner of his late father, Anton Koolman Bloodstock.
“Time helps me sell a horse, but it doesn’t necessarily sell the horse to me. I was particularly taken by the way he did it, not so much the time in which he ran.
“A horse can run 200 metres out of the paddock with no one on its back and, in fact, they’ll do it electively, so it’s not really do-or-die for me most of the time.
“I just like to see the way they go about it and the way they present themselves on sale day under a bit of pressure, a bit of noise and fanfare around them, because that’s what they’re going to get on race day.”
Deep Field had nine 2YO’s sell at an average $245,000.
